AN), | ay we Na i. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC AND ECOLOGICAL BOTANY Ge EDITED BY WILLARD N. CLUTE Volume XXII JOLIET, ILL. WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO. 1916 - — - a =) a, ~ CONTENTS ILLUSTRATED ARTICLES MARKED WITH A STAR (aay EMiattia. ee Ney; Species: Of 2! uy tee kb as - J. M. Bates Evite el leitaests a lisleite 5 eee cae he chs wes A eek le ee Sc a Botanizing in the Corpus Christi Region..... eal. Sell ets GH SLAG oes Oh «5 eta ea ies ous Willard N. Clute Colorado Desert, The Twelve Apostles of the. ........ ey gn ieks Ss SM obs te Mee ek Se C. F. Saunders Eve latien OR eler Sol Hes teres «uo hn once odie Ok cee os Mermmscot Elawat Che Treegee. . Vaughan MacCaughey Isiougersuon. apatay,. Me, ., 7 meet), eo okree er eiien tS 8 iit W seca Vil). is emema ys 5 SG C. F. Saunders Hawaii, Wildflowers of...... Vaughan MacCaughey 97, Merbs, Evolution Of <<... ?, 5 ee Be hcl ee Ap ctieminer iydetOr ICU DU Te yar mene 2... a SME ae these! sede icernce Plant, Che. oo ce eee) H. E. Zimmerman Mitreacuiltise WiheatS..-.. ¢ 2. sspeeber «<> « Me chae O8se vs ays Mounessdams, A Day and Nighi: .. 2 .cess tosis BPE Tech eee cas ACE. tk eR Walter Albion Squires Ossaworamie Pine Wree iter...) C. F. Saunders Oowesouleain the Garden. 2... ....,..Adella Prescott Plant Pood is Formed, How........: Willard N. Clute [PEED AIS Ba A oe ee nr Alice L. Gookins Plants and, Anwunals, Pundamentally Alikesa22........ Regeneration in Blodea. ... 24... ....s,.088 N. M. Grier Soap ron Wald Plante? Oe. oes. C. F; Saunders SRIURE OI ENE asia ams oe ae a 2 Thallophyte-Bryophyte Study, An Ideal Series for..... ial, iss GRRE O ae ed Rika. e os R. I. Raymond Pereesnminc PLOCUC OM) «Mie Were kd. £5y. ae oa che Vegetation of the Hawaiian Summit Bogs............ FM ete a ee iE abel or han Vaughan MacCaughey _ Wild Flowers of Hawaii..... Vaughan MacCaughey 97, Woods, Weight of Our Native Xenia in Maize EDITORIAL Book NEws @)e e)semie (e2k0) le ensel isis, \5 NOTE AND Alkaloids of Belladonna......... 31 meyeanania, eha INCE, 5. 4500nc0 5c 153 Berries of the Ranunculaceae... .150 Bittersweet for Indoors.......... 114 Bobolink, Migrations of the...... 27 Biangan Weise IBichitho ao oooncnoor 29 Bal bletsewleilreseawiitiinesren rece 154 Cat-tails, When to Gather........ 67 (Clo(ce it Asonos ale OR AER In hike ote nia 155 Colchicumyand (Crocuss-os-sceere 149 Collectors, Early) Plant. eee 149 Minn «Growth Period sot. ...eeeaee 106 Evolution, Variation in the Rate of 64 Fungus, An Insect.. ones . 33 Flowers, Magenta, in itive Garden. 34 Forests, Rainfall Due to......... 27 Briaitor Vegetable: .. .d:.ceeeeenLl4 PintiitsamVellOw: mate cs ie eee 64 Galium™ Decorative. -.-.. sce 70 Gardening, Chewing Gum as an PA atO Ve cPertiay. R ELE fos acs 3 113 Gardens.) A) Despizes Ol-+4 eee ne Growth-Period of the Elm....... 106 Insects, Sense of Smell in........ 32 iris Bracteata str... «sce 31 June-bug, Food of the: ..... sees 29 Leaf Margin and Environment... 30 Leaf Movement, Cause of........ 65 WigmiumeNEphGitictitn s.r 106 Lilium Canadense, Color Forms of.111 Wiltes, Colorsiinm Wald. 2 aeeeee er 66 Wilteswithwbilbletse a... oceeecee OPO ow Oo ieoh ere lace made ie Sante be) 94 Adolph E. Waller *41 36, 74, 116, 157 BO. Wig LO. Plas esa). /0: “ei fe) Come slay ence © (ese (sj ie) wee a ewe COMMENT Lily, Canadian in Northwest Iowa. 108 Lily, New Forms of.. hemes Mayapple with Menten anos. 113 Melon, Queen Anne’s Pocket..... “109 Milkweed, Four-leaved ..........148 Namiess \Viernacularm fee ce -ireol Nature Versus the Gardener..... 66 Nomenclature, Absurdities in..... 28 Oaks, Distribution of the......-- 107 Park sAy Private Publicoee secede 62 Periodiciiya im elantseeeeees eae eS Pigweeds Usetriee erence 69 Plant Protection, Snow as a...... 67 Plants, Identifying by Chemistry. 26 QOuinod..< o.ckate seem 28 Ranunculaceae Berries of the.....150 Robin, Food:of the. cose -a-e ene 71 Root-crops. Untstialleeeeerirree 112 Rudbeckia, Duration of Life in... 70 Rudbeckia hirta, A New Form of.151 Science, Applied Versus Pure.... 61 Seeds, Dormancy, amiss ses ee 25 Siva Aaah, Wiss 5550q0G0oaocee 150 Snowflower, Painted’ ~.. 20.2... 148 Stems, “I'wistedmera earn eetere sae 72 ‘Tiree (Cisternsnemareee ce oe stat 115 Trees, Reproduction in........... 68 Trillium, Double White.......... 66 Wood, Stremeth/ot. 0.1... secs on 152 Varieties, Producing New........ 33 Vegetable, Bitiit Ot..c0 a2 «tori 114 Vegetation, Lypes Ok. -.<. v. scl 110 Vol. 22. No. 1 Whole Number 108 FEBRUARY, 1916 25 Gents a Copy; $1.00 a Year WILLARD N. GLUTE & CO. JOLIET, ILLINOIS The American Botanist A Quarterly Journal of Economic & Ecological Botany WILLARD N. CLUTE, EDITOR SUBSCRIPTIONS.—The subscription price of this magazine is $1.00 a year or $1.50 for two years, payable strictly in advance. Personal checks on small or distant banks must contain ten cents for collection fees. The magazine is issued on the 20th of February, May, August and November, BACK NUMBERS.—Volumes 1 to 10 inclusive consists of 6 numbers each, Vols. 11 to 18 of 5 numbers each and all later volumes of 4 numbers each. The first 18 volumes may be had for 75 cents a volume, or the set will be sent for $9.00. A full set contains 2312 pages. THE FERN BULLETIN In 1913, at the completion of its twentieth volume, The Fern Bulletin was consoli- dated with this magazine. The back volumes average more than 100 pages each, and since they cover the entire formative period of American Fern study they are invaluable for reference. The majority of new forms discovered in recent years have been described in its pages. First six volumes out of print. A set of vols. 7 to 20 will be sent for $7.00. An extended description of the contents of the volumes may be had for the asking. WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., PUBLISHERS 207 WHITLEY AVENUE, JOLIET, ILL. ENTERED AS MAIL MATTER OF THE SECOND CLASS AT THE POST OFFICE, JOLIET, ILL, cA BOTANICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA There is no botanical publication in the whole world that contains as much information of value to the plant lover as THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. Since the beginning it has consistently made a specialty of those fugitive notes about plants, which other journals neglect, but which are at the base of any intelligent interest in plants. Nowhere else can one find so many and varied notes on such subjects as latex, perfume, flower color, nectar, pollen, dyes, soaps, pollination, drug plants, edible wild plants, seed dispersal, freaks, Mendel’s law, evolution, the Mutation theory, the use of the various parts in the economy of the plant, etc., etc. In the cumulative index to the contents of the volumes in this office, there are 138 divisions, many of them with 50 or more titles each. There are literally thousands of articles. If bound in one volume, the numbers would make a book larger than the largest dictionary. The information they contain can be found nowhere else. All the large libraries as well as many private individuals have complete sets, and every plant lover should follow their example. We have less than 60 sets left as this is written. Get a set while you can. The first 22 volumes will be sent unbound and postpaid for $12.00. WILLARD N. CLUTE @® CO. JOLIET, ILL. A large tree fern—Cibotium Mensziesii. IN | 4 1916. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST VOL. XXII JOLIE TIE.) BE BRUARY 1916 No. 1 Guery clod feels a stir of might Wn instinct within tt that reaches and towers And groping blindly above tt for light Climbs to a soul in the grass and the flowers. —Lowell. THE TREE FERNS OF HAWAII Paes By VauGHAN MACCAUGHEY. See tree ferns are undoubtedly a declining race. Long ago the humid epoch of their dominance waxed and waned. The coal beds reveal the deathless delicacy of those ancient fronds. The slate strata are sprinkled with the leaf- prints of the primitive plant-world. Few sights stir the botanic imagination as does a cabinet of fern fossils. Each fragment visualizes an earth-epoch antedating today by immeasurable vastnesses of time. The cinematograph-reel of paleobotany whirls back, and flashes strange pictures of illimitable jungle- forests—skirting the world mountains, girdling the Poles, cov- ering great areas of China, Australia, and many other lands. The coal and oil fields of today are the herbaria, the cemetaries, of those spacious Carboniferous swamps. Recent studies in paleobotany have necessitated extensive revisions of current ideas concerning the Carboniferous fern- flora. The prevalent conception of the arborescent pterido- phytes as constituting the major part of the swamp-forest veg- etation, has been demonstrated to be erroneous. Many of the 2 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST supposed fern fossils have proven to be the leaves and stems of primitive gymnosperms. The apparent decadence of the pteridophytes is thus not so great as was once commonly be- lieved. The tree ferns probably never comprised a dominant element of the Carboniferous forests. The arborescent ferns are today widely distributed throughout the humid tropics. They give a distinctive appear- ance to many of the equatorial rain-forests. In favored regions, like Hawaii, they form pure stands of considerable magnitude. Australia, New Zealand, Malaya, Ceylon, Africa, Central and South America, all possess fern forests. The important genera are: Cyathea, Alsophila, Hemiteha, Dicksonia, Thyr- sopteris, Cibotwm, and Balantium. Although associated in the popular mind with a-hot-house atmosphere and a gorgeous tropic background, in reality the tree ferns manifest a considerable range of thermal adaptation. They literally extend from the steaming jungle, “where the blazoned, bird-winged butter-flies flap through,” to the icy rim of the Antarctic. A number of the Tasmanian and New Zealand ferns are annually subjected to very low temperatures, It would appear that the critical factor governing the geo- graphic distribution of the tree ferns is not primarily a high temperature, but high atmospheric humidity fairly continuous throughout the year. The perennial crown of gigantic fronds is vitally dependent upon a moist atmosphere. It cannot long withstand drought, nor thrive in a xerophytic habitat. Small clumps and groves of tree ferns are abundant on the mountain slopes of all the larger islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, but the finest stands are limited to the island of Hawaii. This is the largest and youngest island of the group, in fact its area (four thousand square miles) is greater than the combined area of the others. Hawaii's large size, its great volcanic domes rising to nearly fourteen thousand feet, its THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 3 extensive lava flows, and its long windward coast line, all combine to give this island a remarkable series of ecologic zones. Within the range of few miles one may run the full climatic gamut of the hymn “From Greenland’s icy mountains to India’s coral strand.’ There is conspicuous diversity in annual temperature and precipitation in the various zones and districts, from tropic to frigid, and from sunburnt desert to dripping rain-forest. The fern forests lie along the windward and middle slopes, in the cloud-zone of fairly continuous humidity. Puna, Hilo, Ola’a, parts of Hama-kua and Ko-hala, and wet districts on Mauna Kea and Hu-ala-lai are the chief areas occupied by the tree ferns. The total stand may be very roughly stated at eighty to one hundred square miles. Of the seven genera and three hundred species of the tree ferns (Cyatheaceae), only one genus, Cibotiwm, with three endemic species, occurs in the Hawaiian Archipelago, The fern forests of Hawaii are composed of C. Menziesu, C. Cham- issov and C. glaucum; the latter rare and of minor importance. Cibotium is from the Greek, ‘a little seed vessel,’ and has reference to the conspicuous indusia. Menzies was the botanist with Vancouver’s historic expedition to Hawaii in 1792-94; the botanist Chamisso accompanied the Russian expedition under Kotzebue (1816). Menzie’s tree fern, called hapu v1'i by the Hawaiians, is the largest native species. In favorable localities it attains regal proportions. The brown spongy trunk is frequently two or three feet in diameter, and rises without branching to a height of twenty or twenty-five feet. [from its summit springs a magnificent canopy of huge, tri-pinnate fronds; this splendid fountain of greenery being ten or twelve feet high and twenty to twenty-five feet in diameter. However, with all its glory of crown and magnitude of trunk, the hapu 771 never reaches 4 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST the stately proportions of the justly famous Norfolk Island tree ferns. These belong to the species Alsophila excelsa, and are frequently from sixty to eighty feet in height. Chamisso’s tree fern, Hapu, is more abundant, and more widely distributed than its larger relative. It occurs on all of the high islands of the archipelago, and is plentiful in the humid lower and middle forest zones. Its trunk is usually but six or eight feet in height, and its crown never equals the magnificent dome of the hapu 71. Under very favorable con- ditions the trunk may rise to fifteen feet, but this size is exceptional. The popular notion that tree ferns are tender and easily- damaged is derived from kinds quite different from the hardy hapu. The tree ferns possess great vitality, and will reju- venate themselves after repeated injuries. The Hawaiian Cibotiums are able to maintain themselves in many districts overrun by cattle, goats and swine. These half-wild herbivores have irreparably damaged much of the native woodland, but have not so seriously injured the tree ferns. The wild pigs are particularly obnoxious by reason of their rooting habits, and undoubtedly destroy considerable quantities of young fern trees. The pig hunters well know that fern groves are the favorite haunts of their game. The large petiole-bases, and the terminal bud, (which is as big as a man’s head), are densely covered with a thick matting of golden-brown hair. This soft, silky substance is called pulit by the natives. Under the microscope the individual hair is seen to consist of a series of flat, thin-walled cells, large at the base and tapering to a slender apex. In the early days pula was exploited commercially as a stuffing for pillows and mat- tresses. Several hundred tons were annually exported to Cali- fornia, in addition to the large local trade. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 5 The natives who gathered the pulu displayed the same lack of foresight as did the sandalwood cutters of an earlier Hawaiian era. No thought was given to the conservation of the supply. Whole groves of splendid hapu 771 were felled in order to more easily gather the golden harvest. A few machete-strokes were less laborious than climbing the tree. This recklessness ruined many of the finest groves, and cause a rapid shrinkage in the supply. The industry was further curtailed by the inherent inferiority of the pulu itself. The hair is brittle and weak- jointed, and in usage soon breaks into fine pieces. The mat- tress becomes hard and lumpy, and its elasticity cannot be re- stored. The rapid deterioration of pulu products was soon dis- covered by the trade. The exploitive industry dropped forever from the commercial world, to the great good fortune of Hawaii's beautiful fern forests, Humorous stories are told of the tricks used by the pulu- mattress makers to stimulate trade during the decadent days of the industry. —From “The Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening.” aOIN. EDITORIAL re, Whenever this magazine fails to appear on the first of .cer- tain months—as is invariably the case—our newer subscribers begin to grow anxious and some are wont rather peevishly to inquire why the magazine does not appear with clock-like reg- ularity. Asa matter of fact the issues are supposed to appear on the twentieth instead of the first, but while we name dates on which the magazine may be expected, “we give no assur- ances, expressed or understood,” as the seed catalogues have it, that these expectations will be realized. The clock-like regu- larity of appearance is merely a pleasant little fiction which is included with the price of admission. Most of our readers are aware that the magazine is issued primarily for the editor’s amusement and everybody knows what happens when business and pleasure meet on the same track. Only the millionaire dares side-track business for pleasure and play golf when he ought to be keeping tabs on the cashier. A considerable num- ber of people like the magazine well enough to exchange a dol- lar for it annually and a lot of them have been doing this ever since the first number appeared. We certainly appreciate their support of the enterprise, but until enough others add their support to enable us to secure a real editor on a real salary, the magazine must continue to come out as the present overworked editor can find time for it. Our old subscribers understand the situation and make allowances accordingly. That the maga- zine will ultimately appear is one fact that all can bank on, The editor has issued nearly fifty volumes without ever doubling THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 37 up two numbers in one and thinks he has the hang of the busi- ness well enough to issue a few more after the same pattern. The only thing that gets on his nerves is for new subscribers to insist on having the January and March numbers of the magazine. He thinks they ought to know by this time that “there ain’t no such animal.” co ee ae The world has produced a number of individuals who have attempted to confer lasting benefits on posterity and made a muddle of it, but the one we nominate for the principal prize in such matters is the misguided individual mentioned in a recent number of Torreya, who goes about the country adul- terating the flora with European material to the consequent confusion of all industrious plant geographers. Torreya, quot- ing from the New York Times, says of our hero that “ever since he was a boy he has delighted in transplanting the seeds of wildflowers and plants and trees, so that the growths indi- genous to one section should find a home in another. He for- merly took American seeds to European countries and planted them there, returning to this country with seeds from foreign lands which he planted in this country. In the Eagle Rock Park west of Montclair he has planted many foreign seeds, but most of his planting has been done in the woods of New York, New Jersey and New England. He usually goes on his walk- ing trips carrying bags of seeds in his pockets. The seeds he tosses broadcast as he walks along. On his frequent railroad trips he carries seed from some foreign country in small pack- ages wrapped in tissue paper. These packages, weighted with stones, he tosses from the train windows into the woods bor- dering the tracks.” Hereafter when old Professor Dryasdust finds a new plant along the Atlantic seaboard, he will never be certain whether to write a long paper about the new discovery for the Botanical Society of America or to pull up and destroy the plant as a vile interloper. If we believed in reincarnation, 38 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST we would be inclined to report that the fellow that sowed tares with the wheat is again in the land. ae aay A friend of the magazine has called our attention to the fact that the twelve-volume set of books describing the works of Luther Burbank which we mentioned in a recent issue have actually been issued for some time, are beautifully printed and illustrated, and apparently well edited. We are not disposed to misrepresent the efforts of anybody to improve our plants and hasten to make this correction, though still of the opinion that the results of Burbank’s work have been greatly overesti- mated. We shall hunt up a set of those books as soon as pos- sible and discover for ourselves whether the volumes are as accurate as regards the facts as a work of this kind ought to be, the pages we have seen having given us some doubts on the score. Our informant, however, is one of the country’s most erudite botanists and what he says usually goes. BOOKS AND WRITERS Mr. W. H. Blanchard, 5 Guernsey Ave., Montpelier, Vt , is desirous of notes on blackberries from the Southern States. Mr. Blanchard holds the world’s championship for blackberry- ing since in the pursuit of his hobby he has followed on foot the zone of ripening blackberries from Arkansas well into Canada and has described more new species from New Eng- land and adjacent territory than the manual makers supposed erew in all America. Several of his new species have been de- scribed in this magazine. Our readers living in the South should correspond with Mr. Blanchard. There may be a lot of new species in their own locality and if so Blanchard is the man to discover it. The publishers of Underwood’s “Our Native Ierns’’ in- form us that the work will not be reissued since the last edition THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 39 sold very slowly. This announcement gives a side light on fern study that will be of interest to those planning books on ferns. As a matter of fact, the many popular books for the identification of ferns has afforded the public a short cut to the names, and the more formal text-books are no longer bought, The “Botanical Textbooklet’” mentioned in these pages some time ago, grew, by the time it was issued, into a pamphlet of nearly fifty pages with a single character key to twenty- eight families of plants and fifteen illustrations. The text gives the number of plants in the family, their distribution, their edible and other qualities and tells how to distinguish the dif- ferent groups.. It is not a botanical manual but as an additional help to knowing the plants will be found useful. It costs 25 cents or it will be sent free for the asking to new subscribers and to all who renew for two years in advance, The late Judge Addison Brown, one of the authors of the “Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern States and Canada,” left a considerable sum of money for the purpose of illustrat- ing our wildflowers in color. The series is to be called “Addi- sonia.”’ There will be four numbers a year, each with ten col- ored plates, and the price of the volume will be $10. This country certainly needs a work of this general nature, but it is evident that the promoters of the present scheme have no idea of making it popular. “How to Grow Roses” is the name of a little book issued by the Conard & Jones Company, West Grove, Pa., which has attained the dignity of twelve editions, the latest of which, re- vised and enlarged, has just been issued. Though published by a company of rose growers and evidently designed to ad- vance their business through increased rose-growing, it is, nev- ertheless, about the best manual for the lover of roses that we have seen. The title exactly describes the first part of the book which, in addition to discussing how to grow the plants, does 40 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST not overlook what keeps them from growing, such as insect and fungous pests and the cold of winter. There is a descrip- tive list of 158 varieties of roses, lists of the best roses for dif- ferent parts of the country, recipes for rose beads, descriptions of rose gardens, etc. The book has 120 pages and sells for $1. There are several colored plates and many other illustrations of desirable varieties of roses, There is nothing especially new in the make-up of “Our Early Wildflowers,” by Harriet L. Keeler, but the book, which is a small 16mo, is another of the “how to know”’ vol- umes destined to have a share in introducing the spring wild- flowers to the novice. The species mentioned, about 130 in all, are arranged according to family and each has the usual description after which follows more or less information of an ecological nature. There are numerous good photographs of the plants described and many line drawings, the work of Mary Keffer. The author has made a curious misapprehen- sion in one of the common names of the adder’s tongue, spell- ing it faun lily. As a matter of fact its name is derived from the leaves, which are spotted like the coat of the young deer or fawn. The book is published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, at $1.25 net. Norice.—This number was issued the first week in June and the next issue will appear some time in July. Though late, all the numbers will eventually appear. NATURE STUDY REVIEW OFFICIAL JOURNAL American Nature-Study Society Again Enlarged Beautifully Printed Profusely Illustrated An inspiration to Students, Teachers, Rural Leaders and Superintendents. Filled each month with material and suggestions from the pens of the fore- most Nature-Study Teachers. Price (including membership in the American Nature-Study Society) $1.00 per year. Subscribe Now Foreign (Add for Canadian postage 10c. postage, 20c.) With American Botanist, one year, $1.50. Address all Orders to THE NATURE STUDY REVIEW ITHACA, N. Y. SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS Covers the Earth HERE IS THE LIST OF COUNTRIES TO WHICH IT GOES EACH MONTH: Every State In the United States, every Province in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, Brazil, Argentine, Chile, Peru, Ecuador. Every country in Europe, including Turkey, Egypt, Liberia, Cape Colony, The Transvaal, Persia, Ceylon, India, China, Korea, Japan, Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii. GET YOUR FRIENDS TO SUBSCRIBE NOW EIGHT DEPARTMENTS: Botany. Chemistry, Earth Science, Mathe- matics, Problems, Physics, Science Ques- tions and Zoology. SEND IN YOUR SUBSCRIPTION $2.00 PER YEAR School Science and Mathematics 2059 EAST 72nd PLACE CHICAGO, ILL The Modern Gladiolus Grower Published monthly in the interests of both amateurs and professionals. 50c per year—3 years for $1.00 The Gladiolus has been wonderfully im- roved and is rapidly becoming the fashion. mportant developments are looked for in .the immediate future, Madison Cooper, Publisher. Calcium, N. Y. A Botanical Textbooklet Designed to aid the beginner in recognizing the members of the larger plant families in the field. Has a key to the principal plant families, fourteen illustrations and nearly fifty pages of text in which the color and structure of the flowers are given, the dis- tribution or the species noted and much other information of an economic or eco- logical nature added. PRICE 25c Free with All New Subscriptions to American Botanist WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO. JOLIET, ILL. Volume X XI OF THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 160 Pages 107 Articles 20 Illustrations Price $1.00 Postpaid Vol. XX! and the current one $1.50 Vol. XX! with order for books .60 A full set of the Magazine to the end of the present volume, 2960 pages, thousands of articles, $12.00. Willard N. Clute & Co. JOLIET, ILL. AGRONOMY A Course in Practical Gardening for High Schools By Willard N. Clute. A book for the spring semester designed to give the student a knowledge of the principles that underlie Landscape Gardening, Horticulture and the Improve- ment of Plants. A full account of gardening processes, practical directions for garden making and many exercises in related subjects. Though designed for school use, there is no book better adapted for the amateur gardener. :8vo. 300 pages and nearly 200 illustrations. $1.00 postpaid. Our Ferns In Their Haunts By Willard N. Clute Careful descriptions of all the ferns in Eastern North America with special regard to their haunts and habits. Every species illustrated. There is also an illustrated key by means of which even the beginner can _ identify his specimens. The most popular American fern book. 8vo. 333 pages, 225 illustrations and 8 colored plates, $2.15 post- paid. Fern Allies of North America By Willard N. Clute A companion volume to “Our Ferns’ which describes all the fern allies in North America, north of Mexico. The only popular book on the subject in the English language. A full account of the club mosses, scouring rushes, selaginellas ard re- lated plants. Has seven keys to the species. 8vo. 250 pages, 150 illustrations and 8 colored plates, $2.15 post- paid. THE FERN COLLECTORS’ GUIDE By Willard N. Clute. A little book of a size to fit the pocket and designed to aid the student in finding, identifying and preserving his specimens. Has an illustrated key to all the species, a complete glossary, and a checklist of the eastern American ferns with space for notes. A valuable guide for the beginning student. 60 pages, several illustrations. 54 cents postpaid. LABORATORY BOTANY FOR THE HIGH SCHOOL By Willard N. Clute. A new and unique manual founded on the inductive method of teaching botany which covers a year’s work in the subject. Simplifies the work of both teacher and student without lowering the standard of the course. flexible. Can be condensed or extended at any point. gathering, preparing, and presenting material. 12mo. 177 pages. Absolutely Full instructions for Many other valuable features. 75 cents postpaid. The American Botanist will be sent one year for 60 cents when ordered with any book in this list. Address all orders to WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., JOLIET, ILLINOIS. Vol. 22. No. 2 Whole Number 109 AMERICA BOTANIS MAY, 1916 25 Cents a Gopy; $1.00 a Year WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO. JOLIET, ILLINOIS The American Botanist A Quarterly Journal of Economic 6 Ecological Botany WILLARD N. CLUTE, EDITOR SUBSCRIPTIONS.—The subscription price of this magazine is $1.00 a year or $1.50 for two years, payable strictly in advance. Personal checks on small or distant banks must contain ten cents for collection fees. The magazine is issued on the 20th of February, May, August and November, BACK NUMBERS.—Volumes 1 to 10 inclusive consists of 6 numbers each, Vols. 11 to 13 of 5 numbers each and all later volumes of 4 numbers each. The first 18 volumes may be had for 75 cents a volume, or the set will be sent for $9.00. A full set contains 2312 pages. THE FERN BULLETIN In 1913, at the completion of its twentieth volume, The Fern Bulletin was consoli- dated with this magazine. The back volumes average more than 100 pages each, and since they cover the entire formative period of American Fern study they are invaluable for reference. The majority of new forms discovered in recent years have been described in its pages. First six volumes out of print. A set of vols. 7 to 20 will be sent for $7.00. An extended description of the contents of the volumes may be had for the asking.: : WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., PUBLISHERS 207 WHITLEY AVENUE, JOLIET, ILL. ENTERED AS MAIL MATTER OF THE SECOND CLASS AT THE POST OFFICE, JOLIET, ILL. -A BOTANICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA There is no botanical publication in the whole world that contains as much information of value to the plant lover as THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. Since the beginning it has consistently made a specialty of those fugitive notes about plants, which other journals neglect, but which are at the base of any intelligent interest in plants. Nowhere else can one find so many and varied notes on such subjects as latex, perfume, flower color, nectar, pollen, dyes, soaps, pollination, drug plants, edible wild plants, seed dispersal, freaks, Mendel’s law, evolution, the Mutation theory, the use of the various parts in the economy of the plant, etc., etc. In the cumulative index to the contents of the volumes in this office, there are 138 divisions, many of them with 50 or more titles each. There are literally thousands of articles. If bound in one volume, the numbers would make a book larger than the largest dictionary. The information they contain can be found nowhere else. All the large libraries as well as many private individuals have complete sets, and every plant lover should follow their example. We have less than 60 sets left as this is written. Get a set while you can. The first 22 volumes will be sent unbound and postpaid for $12.00. WILLARD N. CLUTE © CO. JOLIET, ILL. Xenia in Maize, THe AMERICAN BOTANIST \WO} rs 2210 JOLTED Uae MAYENTOTG No. 2 Wmid the thousand blossoms of the lime Oke gossip bees go hurrying to and fro, And oh, the busy soy of working time, And oh, the fragrance where the lime trees grow. —Augusta Webster. XENIA IN MAIZE By ApoLteH E, WALLER. HE formation of the endosperm of a great many seeds from a triple fusion is a well known fact to all students of botany. When the contents of a pollen grain are discharged through the pollen tube, the first sperm fuses with the egg to form the embryo, while the second sperm unites with the two polar bodies, or polar nuclei, to form the definitive nucleus. This later becomes the endosperm tissue surrounding and pro- tecting the embryo. It is here that a reserve supply of starchy material is stored. After the seed is planted and sprouting starts, the embryo draws on the endosperm for its food supply until the young plantlet can nourish itself, The phenomenon called xenia is intimately connected with triple fusion. Xenia shows the immediate influence of the pol- len in subsequent endosperm formation. If the second sperm from the pollen brings with it determiners for a dominant char- acter that expresses itself in the endosperm, i. e. if pollen from blue flint corn is transferred to the silks of white dent corn, then 42 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST the effect of the pollen is apparent the same year the cross is made. The accompanying photograph shows an ear of corn with about one fourth of the kernels blue, marked off on one part of the ear. It was obtained by carefully dividing the silks and bagging the shoot. Two days later pollen from blue flint was placed on one part of the silks, the other being carefully pro- tected with oiled paper. After forty-eight hours more the bag was removed and the shoot was allowed to be open pollinated with the pollen from the white dent of the field in which it grew, A blue kernel appears everywhere a silk received pollen from blue flint. Two blue kernels appear out of line showing the division not entirely accurate. There are also five white kernels in the blue area. But in the illustration a difference in the intensity of blue pigmentation causes some of the blues to look as light colored as the pure white, while in the original specimen the contrast between blue and white is more definitely marked. The misplaced white kernels are marked on the pho- tograph. By exercising sufficient patience and ingenuity many rings or bands and stripes of color could be obtained, or parti- colored ears to suit the manipulator’s fancy. For the purpose of demonstrating the immediate effect of the pollen in this ‘‘manufactured” ear, blue and white were the contrasting characters chosen. Other characters that affect the color or texture of the endosperm could as well have been used. For instance pollen from field corn transferred to sweet corn or from corn with yellow endosperm to corn with white endo- sperm would have served the same purpose. With three varieties, white sweet, yellow dent, blue flint, at his disposal, it would be possible for anyone to make an ear containing kernels of three colors and two endosperm composi- tions and of any design his imagination may suggest. Using the white sweet (both of these are recessive characters) for the THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 43 carpellate parent and supplying pollen from all three varieties, blue, white, yellow, starchy, and sweet kernels could be formed. That triple fusion and xenia bear the relation to one another of cause and effect, but that not all triple fusions are followed by xenia could also be demonstrated by pollinating blue flint with pollen from white sweet. THE LICORICE PLANT By H. E. ZIMMERMAN. ANY people who are now grown up remember that not so many years ago licorice root was a favorite com- modity among the boys and girls of the public school. Be- cause of its sweet and agreeable taste it was a common sight to see pupils with a piece of this root in their mouths, chewing one end of it. In those days country stores sold a good deal of licorice in this form to persons who enjoyed chewing it. Black licorice, in stick form, gradually supplanted the root form. Botanically the licorice plant belongs to the legume or bean family of plants. It has long, pliant, creeping roots,. and reaches a height of about three feet, and bears a small purple flower, which fills the air for miles with a sweet, heavy smell. It derives its name from two Greek words which mean “sweet root.” The juice 1s used in medicine as an emollient and demulcent, and also for disguising the taste of nauseous drugs. It is also used to flavor snuff and tobacco. The plant grows in the East, especially in the territory of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The first year’s growth resembles a loosely twisted string of tow and may run to 20 feet in length. The second year it assumes a woody substance when dry, and the third year it becomes valuable. The time for digging the root- 44 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST is in the winter, when it is dried and crushed under heavy stones drawn round on it by mules, much like olives are crushed to extract their oil. The plant grows wild, and some of the natives regard it as a pest. In the eyes of the Bedouins who transport the product by caravan to seaport, the root in itself 1s of no value except as it may be uséd to kindle fires. The industry is a great blessing to a comparatively poor region, requiring hun- Piles of Licorice Root. ‘dreds of natives to harvest and prepare it for shipment. The ‘crooked and imperfect sticks are used for firewood, while the straighter and more perfect sticks are tied in bundles, to be shipped to America, the principle market for it. The large pile of roots shown in the illustration was found near Antioch, Syria. It represents thousands of tons. Such gigantic piles of licorice root are to be seen all over Syria. The American Tobacco Company, the largest buyer of this root, owns the pile here shown. VEGETATION OF THE HAWATIAN SUMMIT BOGS By VAUGHAN MACCAUGHEY. HE general geography of the Hawaiian Islands is well- known to the educated reader. The mid-Pacific location of this remote archipelago, its shining coral strands, the mag- nificent cloud-crowned mountains, the rivers of black lava, and fiery lakes of incandescent rockstuff,—these features have received wide publicity. The islands have been visited repeat- edly by men of science and by exploring expeditions, and the distinctive characters of Hawait’s natural history are generally appreciated. Undoubtedly the least-visited and least-known regions in Hawai are the remarkable summit bogs. Altho of great geologic and biologic interest, their almost inaccessible situa- tions, and the hardships incident to visiting them, have effect- ually deterred all but the hardiest of mountaineers. They are reached only by scaling dizzy ridges and dripping cliffs, per- petually swept by fog and rain, and often hidden for weeks together by their thick cloud-mantles. These high bogs are of particular interest to the naturalist, not only because of their unique topography, but because of the rare plants that occur in no other places. It has been the good fortune of the author to have made pedestrian journeys over all the larger islands of the Hawaiian group, and it is the purpose of the present paper to describe somewhat in detail these high swamp- lands, with their unique vegetation. 46 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST The general appearance of the Hawaiian bogs is similar to that of the bogs familiar to continental botanists. The soggy soil is covered with a thick vegetable mold of decaying turf and mosses, the soil proper being composed of disintegrated basaltic lava, varying in color from dark brown to pale gray. ats exceedingly fine-grained, like ‘‘adobe’’, and is very ten- acious of its large water content. Under the stunted clumps of bushes and dwarf-trees, there is a considerable accumulation of dead branches and twigs in the mold; frequently this mate- rial is in an excellent state of preservation. The surface of the bogs is covered with tusock-forming grasses, sedges, sphagamus, and other mosses. Abundant species are Panicum isachnoides, P. imbricatum, P. monticola, Oreobolus furcatus, Carex sandwicensis, Deschampia australis, Lusula hawatiensis, and others. There is practically no stand- ing water or pools, although the vegetation is water-soaked, and the rainfall excessive. The bogs are neither treeless, nor is there a continuous arborescent cover. Here and there are clumps of gnarled dwarf-trees, and these clumps occasionally coalesce into larger units. Some of the distinctive smaller plants, in addition to the turf-plants already enumerated, are: the insectivorous Droscra longifolia; the elfin Metrosideros pumila; a number of endemic woody violets, Viola; a terrestrial orchid, Habenaria holochila; several Lycopodiums,; several Astelias; several varieties of Plantago pachyphylla; Wilkesia Grayana; Geranium humile ; Lagenophora mauiensis; Acaena exigua; and several woody Lobelias. The dwarf trees comprise a variety of genera and species; almost all of them are endemic, and the majority are highly precinctive. The Vacciniwms are not abundant in the bogs; in Hawaii their zone of optimum growth is at a lower level than the bogs, and under conditions of lesser humidity. There are none of the pitcher plants, ericaceous forms, Calopo- gons, or pogomias of the continental bogs in the Hawaiian bogs. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 47 There are six bog regions of importance, each situated on or near the summits of lofty volcanic mountains, Named in order, from west to east, they are: Wai-ale-alé, on Kauai; Ka-ala, on Oahu; Halawa Swamps on Molokai; Puu Kukui, FE-eke, and Wat-a-napa-napa. on Maui; and the Jlohal Swamps, on Kohala. There are also swampy areas on the slopes of Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, and Hualalai, on Hawaii, but these lack the distinctive vegetation of the summit areas listed. These summit bogs all lie within the cloud zone, at elevations of from four thousand to seven thousand feet. The Ala-kai Swamp, on the upper slopes of Mount Wai-ale-alé, Kauai, is unquestionably the largest, wettest, and most dangerous bog in the archipelago. Its elevation is 3500 to 5000 feet, and its occupies an area of some sixteen square miles. The treacherous morasses are fog-swathed almost con- tinuously throughout the year. The total annual precipitation is enormous, indeed well-nigh incredible, and probably exceeds eight hundred inches (sixty-five feet). There are authentic U. S. Hydrographic Survey rain-gauge records of over 120 inches in a single month. The atmosphere, vegetation, and spongy soil are continuously saturated. The quaking morass is covered with thin turf of alpine character, mosses, and stunted ligneous vegetation. In many places there is no solid ground, the quagmire trembles at every step, the hazardous trail is very indistinct, and a misstep plunges the chilled and water-soaked adventurer waist deep into the gray mud. Large areas of the bog are absolutely im- passable. The prevailing temperatures are low, and a night spent near the summit is a chilling and thoroly uncomfortable experience, The testimony of Professor William A. Bryan, who made extensive ornithological expeditions into this region, may be taken as representative of the hardships encountered 48 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST by everyone who has attempted this dangerous country. He states (Natural History of Hawaii, p. 107), ‘The writer, with an experienced native guide, spent three weeks in the region . . . and amid chilling rains and bewildering fogs made an expedition extending through four days over miles of quaking moss-grown bog to . . . the summit of Wai- aleale. We were never out of the dense fog during the expe- dition, and that we returned to our camp and the civilization at all has always seemed little short of the miraculous Our chief concern was to locate reasonably solid ground, a necessary precaution that entailed many weary miles of wandering in the wierd moss-grown wilderness.” This vast bog is an inexhaustable reservoir for all the lee- ward streams, and has given them the material for cutting the great canyons of southern Kauai. A considerable portion of the island eight to ten miles south of the bogs is thus abundantly supplied with water at all times. In a similar manner the bogs of Molokai and of Kohala are the head- waters of important streams. The plant life, although stunted and windswept, is diver- sified. A high percentage of the species and varieties are endemic. A number of the varieties are bog forms of species that are abundant at the lower levels. The lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha Gaud), which in the forests of Puna is a mag- nificent tree towering to the height of 125 feet, on the summit of Wat-aleale is a stunted shrub, or even a prostrate creeper among the sedges. The native name for a portion of this swamp is Lehua makanoe, which means “the lehua tree in bf the fog.’ In his monumental treatise on ‘“The Unwritten Literature of Hawaii” (Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 38), Dr, N. B. Emerson gives a translation of an ancient mele which contains so much of interest, that it is presented in part: , THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 49 “Wai-aleale stands haughty and cold, Her lehua bloom, fog-soaked, droops pensive; The thorn-fringe set about swampy Ai-po is A feather that flaunts in spite of the pinching frost. Her herbage is pelted, stung by the rain; Bruised all her petals, and moaning in cold Mokihana’s sun, his wat’ry beams.” Commenting, he says, the “‘summit, a cold, fog-swept wilderness of swamp and lake, beset with dwarfish growths of lehua, is used as the symbol of a woman, impulsively kind, yet in turn passionate and disdainful. The physical attributes of the mountain are ascribed to her, its spells of frosty cold- ness, its gloom and distance, its fickleness of weather, the repellent hirsuteness of the stunted vegetation that fringes the central swamp The mele is indicative of the intimate knowledge of these summit bogs possessed by the ancient Hawaiians, and to this day the only reliable guides are the few remaining old-time Hawatians, ” Oahu has only one very small bog, located on the summit of Ka-ala, in the Waianae Mountains, elevation 4030 feet. This range is very old and has suffered great erosion and degredation. Unlike Kauai, there are practically no uplands. The summit ridges are, exceedingly narrow, the comb of the ridge averaging less than six or eight feet in width. From the lowlands the summit of Ka-ala appears tabular, but this is an optical illusion. The bog is only a few square rods in area, and is abruptly bounded by extensive precipices. The soil is a deep, spongy peat mold, interlaced with tree roots and decaying branches. The trees are stunted, wind-swept, and very old. The lapa-lapa tree (Cheirodendron platyphyllum (Hook. & Arn) Seem.), is a distinctive species of this swamp. All of the woody vegetation is covered with saturated clumps of epiphytic mosses, liverworts, lichens, and ferns. The gen- eral impression is that of senility. There are many indications that this is the “last stand” of what was at some former time a much more extensive bog. The heavy precipitation that 50 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST maintains the swamp is at the same time slicing away its margins. In a comparatively short geological period the summit bog of Ka-ala will vanish entirely, as has that of the degraded Ko’o-lau Range along windward Oahu. Molokai is a long, narrow island, forty by ten miles in extent, with the long axis due east and west. Like Oahu and Maui it is a volcanic doublet, the two cones having appeared at widely separated periods of volcanic activity. The western cone is dry and barren, rising only to a height of 1382 feet, and is largely covered with introduced ranch grasses. There is no forest and no swamp land. The larger eastern dome presents a striking series of contrasts with its western associates. It rises to a height of nearly 5000 feet. The long windward face is marked by stupendous precipices and deep valleys. The scenery is of heroic proportions. The summit has been eaten away by the great ampitheaters of erosion, like Ka-ala, so that in the heart of the mountains occur precipices literally thousands of feet in height. The crown is covered by dense jungle forest. The high flatlands at the head of Halawa Valley are cloud-capped and boggy. These Halawa bogs correspond topographically and biologically to the summit bogs on Wai-aleale and on West Maui. They cover an area of several square miles, The bogs are bounded on all sides by enormous precipices; the eastern cliffs are marked by the beautiful waterfalls of Moa-ula and Hi-pua-pua. The Molokai bogs exhibit many features common to those of Kauai and Maui. The lava soil is hidden under deep layers of water-saturated mosses and decaying vegetation, The arborescent growth is sparse and stunted, and bears all of the ecological earmarks of its cold, foggy, humid habitat. There is a large number of precinctive species and varieties. Like Wai-aleale, many parts of the bog are practically in- accessible. The introduced goats and deer that have ravaged THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 51 the lower forest levels are unable to live in this water-soaked highland, so that the flora exists in its primitive condition, There are two summit bog regions on the island of Maui. West Maui, which is deeply eroded, is crowned by Puw Kukm (5788 feet). On a narrow summit ridge, a mile and a half to the north of this peak, is an ancient tufa crater basin, Ecke. The saucer-shaped interior of this crater, and much of the narrow summit flats between it and Puu Kukui, is boggy. The vegetation is strikingly similar to that of Waz-aleale. Puu Kukui rises directly above the great amphitheater of [ao Valley. Eeke hangs on the verge of a similar valley bowl, Wai-hee. The torrential rains that have so enlarged the valley heads, maintain the elevated bogs. Although difficult of access, these bogs have been frequently visited by scientists, and their floral and faunal contents are better known than those of Molokai or Kohala. Of comparatively recent exploration are the boggy ilats that lie at the extreme head of Kipa-hule Valley, on the eastern slope of East Maui. A small lake, Wai-a-napa-napa, occurs in the midst of these high swamps, at an elevation ot eight thousand feet. The general aspect of the Wat-a-napa- napa swamps is similar to that of Molokai. The entire wind- ward slope of the Hale-a-ka-la calderon is characterized by torrential precipitation. A large part of the upper jungle forest is inaccessible unless the party is equipped with machetes and axes. The complete exploration of this deeply eroded and densely vegetated area lies in the future. The only summit bogs on Hawaii occur in the Kohala Mountains, at the northern extremity of the island. This range is of great geologic antiquity, and undoubtedly existed long before the formation of the vast volcanic domes that lie to the south and now dominate the island. The island of Kohala probably existed as such,—and much larger than the present Kohala Range,—simultaneously with the island of 52 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST West Maui. As with all Hawaiian mountains, the rainfail is very heavy on the windward, northeastern, slope, averaging 300-400 inches. The leeward side is semi-arid below the 150€ foot contour. The swamp lands lie along the rounded summit, —5489 feet, and occupy an area of several square miles. Numerous disintegrated cinder cones and volcanic blow- holes give evidence of the prehistoric activity of this cloud- swept morass.- Some of the vents are eight to ten feet in diameter and several hundred feet deep. As the mouths are invariably masked by luxuriant vegetation, they are veritable pitfalls, and require constant vigilance on the part of the explorer. The dense forest growth and thick layers of mosses and ferns now effectually hide the great majority of these voleanic vestiges. Prolonged erosion has carved enormous valleys,—Wai-pio, Wai-manu, Ala-kahi,—back into the very heart of the mountain. Beautiful waterfalls drop a sheer fifteen hundred feet down the vertical wal!s of these gigantic amphitheaters. Just as on the other islands, the swampy ~ flatlands that crown the valley walls are densely covered with stunted hydrophytic vegetation. The dwarfed trees are clad with epiphytes,—mosses, liverworts, and ferns predominating. The beautiful indigenous lobelias of the genus Clermontia constitute a characteristic feature of the Kohala swamps, ant are represented by a number of species. SOAP FROM WILD PLANTS By CHARLES FRANCIS SAUNDERS. ATURE evidently intended man to be cleanly, for long before the invention of soap she had stocked the earth with plants capable of being used as soaps and quite as effective as the manufactured article. In the United States alone there are half a dozen genera of native plants which contain saponin in sufficient quantities to make them capital detergents. They are most numerous in the arid Southwest and on the Pacific Coast, and are variously known as soap-weed, soap-root, soap- plant and amolec—the last being the name given by Spanish- Americans. Botanically these plants are indigenous species of Cucurbita, Ceanothus, Chenopodium, Chlorogalum, Yucca and Zygadenus, in addition to which an Old World species of Saponaria is represented in the herb Bouncing Bet, which. criginally cultivated here as a garden flower, has now become a naturalized escape in many parts of our countryside. Of these soap plants it is usually the root which is used, and all that is necessary to do is to dig this up, rinse it, crush it somewhat, and rub it briskly between the hands in water, when a lather is produced which quickly cleanses the skin leav- ime it agrecably soft, “Im the case of several species of Ceanothus, which are particularly abundant in California, the flowers and the green seed-vessels may be used with like effect. These shrubs are known as wild lilacs and during their season of bloom covers entire hillsides in places with a delicate veil of color. There is one species of Ceanothus (C. Americanus ) indigenous to our Atlantic seaboard and known commonly as 54 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST New Jersey tea. It possesses the same saponaceous property. Perhaps the most interesting of our soap-weeds 1s Chlorogalum pomeridianum, a bulbous lily-like plant of the Pacific Coast, which presents its soapy offering in a particularly neat manner. The bulb is the part used, and this on being dug up is found wrapped in a loose jacket of coarse fibre, which may be readily Ceanothus or wild lilac. stripped off, taking all stains of earth with it and leaving a clean, moist ball of “soap” for instant use. The saponaceous character of most, if not all, of these plants was thoroughly understood by the Indians, and certain tribes in the Southwest employ them to this day in their ablu- tions, particularly in the purification preparatory to religious rites—the use of commercial soap in this connection being considered inadmissible. REGENERATION IN ELODEA By N. M. Grier. URING the past year, the writer, while observing the growing of Elodea (Philotria) canadensis. Mchx. in a laboratory aquarium, was led to note the apparent regularity with which buds and adventitious roots made their appearance upon the plant. Of 61 cases examined, it was observed of the roots that in no case these appeared less than 7 nodes apart, nor more than 13, 11 being most common, and the average number being 10. It was thus apparent that root- forming material was localized. This led to speculation as to what portion of the plant would be able to act as a unit organism if judged by the capacity to produce roots and buds when detached from the parent organism. Accordingly, a series of experiments were made in the procedure to be described. By means of sharp, sterile scissors the plant body above the anchoring roots and junction of the branches was divided into 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 segments respectively, and grouped as such, care being taken to cut above and below the leaves of each terminal whorl when possible to prevent the probability of any damage to these. Five cuttings of each were taken, and each placed in a stender dish of appropriate size in water obtained from the same source as that in which the parent plants were growing. The experiments extended about a month, and the results obtained in that time are best presented in the following table: 56 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST Number Number of Buds Group Surviving Operation Formed in Group I II III IV V VI VII VIII IDX X BPP oorR RD RHO BE EWWNNHH SO Upon examining the above table, it will be observed that the number of buds formed in each group tends to substantiate the fact that at every ten segments, (as was found to be the average), the bud elements are located. Thus group I taken as a whole containing 5 segments could not be expected to produce any buds, group II in all 10 segments, could be expected to produce 1, group VI consisting of 30 segments would most probably produce 3, etc. The discrepency in group 10 may be explained by the fact that immediately after sectioning, the 5th member of that group commenced to disintegrate, as was also the case of the non-surviving member in group IX. It will also be noted, that the greater the number of seg- ments represented, the greater the chance of survival of that particular piece, but that survival does not always imply that vegetative buds will be formed, as to be seen in the cases of groups 5, 6, 7, 8. Some pieces of these groups are as green today as at the time of sectioning, but show no vegetative ten- dencies. It seems probable to the writer that under ordinary conditions pieces consisting of 10 nodes represent the minimum size of plant at which the activities of the parent organism are duplicated, and this statement seems warranted by the fact that in those pieces of less than 10 segments, an advanced state of development of the buds usually resulted in the death of the parent section, due probably to the withdrawal of nourishment. The development of buds was always immediately succeeded by the formation of roots adjacent to them and later, opposite. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 57 In some cases 3 or even 4 roots were formed, but never more than one bud in these experiments. There appeared to be some degree of polarity in that the buds were formed slightly superior in position. The first roots, while at first positively heliotropic, and at first produced at right angles to the stem, shortly afterwards curved in under the stem and away from the light. The fact that at the base of each new bud roots appeared might indicate that the localization described would be of use to the plant, especially since under ideal conditions, the stem tends to become brittle, and that there is a tendency for the stem to die away beneath the branches, although it should be remembered that the habitat of this particular form—in slow streams and ponds—is such as would preclude the probability of any constant strain making these properties useful. A NEW SPECIES OF ALLIUM By]. MM. BaAmss: N June 22,1906, about four miles southwest of Grand Island, Nebraska, I collected a lavender-pink form of Alliwn which at the time did not greatly interest me. I had found Allium Canadense rather common in the vicinity with the usual bulblets and considered this simply a sport of the black- seeded type. In 1907 I found it at Wood river, 16 miles west, and named it A. Canadense. In June, 1910, I found it in perfect condition with lavender flowers in the railroad yards at Hastings where it was evidently introduced. My attention was now fully engaged. I carried the bulbs to Red Cloud and planted them in two gardens for study and for the enjoyment of its beauty. Later I found it at Havelock, ten miles east of Lincoln, and at Walton and Weeping Water, east of Lincoln, and on July 2 my son collected it for me eight miles west of Lincoln. With this distribution it is certainly noteworthy that our botanies make not mention of so beautiful a thing. I have sent it to Dr. N. L. Britton to be grown in the New York Botanical Gardens. ALLIUM LAVENDULARE N, Sp. Larger plants two feet high. Bulbs, covered with net- work, the largest 7 of an inch in diameter. Leaves flat, 24/12 wide, more than half as long as the scrapes. Heads from 1% inches to 2% inches across, densely flowered. Bracts 3, broad, abruptly long acuminate. Perianth segments laven- der, 4/12 long, acute. Capsule not crested, obovate, flat- THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 59 tened. In sandy to very rich heavy soils. Closely related to Allium mutabile, Michx. It does not grow with that plant but occupied the ground by itself. Some would call it merely a variety of mutabile, It is simply a point of view which is con- stantly changing. I publish it in this way to call attention to a plant worthy of cultivation. The delicate lavender fades into pink with age and upon drying in press. PLANTS AND ANIMALS FUNDA- MENTALLY ALIKE | al ayia omumaiamer plants and animals are very much alike. I mean the resemblances are much more basic than the differences. The latter, very conspicuous to the eye, may be regarded as differences of degree, rather than of kind. Of many of the lower forms of life, it is still very difficult to say whether they are plants or animals; of the whole group of bacteria for example. For the primitive doubtful forms of life you will recall that Haeckel created the special kingdom of Protista. To my mind a fundamental unity runs through.all living things from the lowest to the highest like a gold thread through a tapestry. Tor one thing, all are alive; all possessed of that unstable equilibrium of forces expressed by the words growth and decay, These phenomena are the properties of a substance called protoplasm. In both plants and animals this substance is organized into the form of cells. In both, usually, it is the outer protoplasmic membrane that controls the passage of tons, the disassociated electrically charged ele- ments of water and other compounds. The same wonderful process of cell multiplication by mitosis occurs in both plants and animals. In both, except in the lowest forms, these cells are organized into tissues with division of labor. In both, there is a sexual method of reproduction. Plants, indeed, 60 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST propagate also non-sexually by budding, but so do many of the lower animals. In many plants there 1s regeneration when parts are cut away, but so there is in a great variety of animals, Even their foods are not different. It is true, the plants differs decidedly from the animal in possessing an apparatus for elaborating inorganic substances into starch, sugar, and pro- teids, which the animal consumes, but it makes these substances for its own use, not for the animal. It 1s sometimes assumed that the inorganic substances, of earth, air and water, are the food of the plants, but such is not the case. The plant depends for its growth on the same nutrient substances as the her- bivorous animals, viz., on starch, sugar, and proteid, which it has stored in every seed and under every growing bud. The phenomena of birth, growth and decay are essentially the same in plants and in animals; but corresponding to higher development, the animal has many special organs either want- ing altogether in the plant, or greatly simplified; it also has flexible cell walls while the plant has rigid cell walls. But both plants and animals respire, both assimilate food sub- stances and ovidize them with resultant work; both require about the same amount of water and mineral salts; both have a circulation of fluids and both secrete and excrete a variety of substances, acid, alkaline, and neutral. The response to stimuli, such a gravity, heat, light, radium, X-ray, electricity, and poisons, is much the same in both groups. In irritable response, plants and animals both obey Weber’s Law; that is, to increase a response in an arithmetical ratio, the stimulus must be applied in a geometrical ratio. There is a suggestion, even, of a nervous system in plants since stimuli are passed along certain channels to distant organs, and the movement can be slowed down by cold, increased by heat, or inhibited by poisons applied midway, the response, according to Bose, being not simply hydro-mechanical. Even the idea of locomo- tion does not distinguish animals from plants. Many of the THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 61 lower animals are rooted fast, while many of the lower plants have swimming organs and are actively motile. Moreover, all of the higher plants, change position more or less; all are sensitive; all show rythmic movements. Finally, the intimate cell-chemistry of the two groups (production of digestive enzymes, and the amino-acids, etc.), so far as known, is much alike—From an article by Dr. Erwin F. Smith in Science. APPLIED VERSUS PURE SCIENCE.—The antithesis between applied science and pure science is sometimes emphasized to the point of bitterness. The only salvation in the situation is that society as a whole overcomes some of the narrowness of its individual members. The chemical researcher is supple- mented by the practical man who dyes cloth and tans leather and makes sugar. Society is gradually evolving special agencies to help her in overcoming the narrowness of special- ists. She is evolving specialists whose business it is to bring to narrow-minded practical workers the results of the re- searches of narrow-minded students of science. These middle- men are sometimes unable to get the sympathy of either group whose efforts they are trying to unify.—Judd: Psychology of High School Subjects. NOTE and COMMENT A Private Pusriic Park.—Curtis G. Lloyd, of Cincin- nati, Ohio, a sort of Elbert Hubbard among students of fungi, with a leaning toward puffballs and shelf fungi, has recently purchased a picturesque tract of land near his home town and turned it over to the public for a picnic and recreation ground. Unlike the average millionaire who gives a park to his city, Mr. Lloyd seems to have no desire to make the public con- tribute in some measure to his benefactions, and not only pro- poses to look after the upkeep of the park himself, but has pro- vided for a continuance of this service after he has removed to more flowery fields. In the same manner he and his brother, John Uri Lloyd, have provided for the perpetuation of the Lloyd Library and Fungus Museum which occupies two three- story buildings in Cincinnati. The people of Cincinnati are fortunate in being able to number such men among their citi- zens. The kind is far from common. Some day, other men with money to spare will awake to the fact that there are other ways of benefiting the public besides contributing to colleges, churches, and hospitals, worthy though these latter may be. AGE OF CONCORD GRAPE.—Some things seem to have ex- isted from the beginning of time, simply because we have al- ways been accustomed to seeing them. One of these is the Concord grape. This grape is probably more largely grown in America than any other variety, though its predominance is of comparatively recent date. The oldest Concord grape vine in existence is much younger than many persons now living. It THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 63 is, in fact, less than seventy years old. The Catawba grape is nearly fifty years older but it never attained to the Concord’s popularity. The grape, however, is not an isolated case. When we begin to inquire into the history of almost any of our vari- eties of fruit, we find that all are of comparatively recent ori- gin. The varieties in cultivation a hundred years ago were seldom up to the standards we hold at present. Probably the fruits of another generation will in their turn excel those which we regard so highly. VARIETIES OF GARDEN FLOWERS.—The conservative bot- anist is not the only one to complain of the undue multiplica- tion of varieties. The gardener, like his scientific confrere, is beginning to find the flood of new forms somewhat embar- rassing and objects to many of them as trivial variations of no value to anybody. In the Modern Gladiolus Grower, one nur- seryman voices his complaint in part as follows: “Take any catalogue that describes a long list of varieties and one of ex- perience cannot select the best by the descriptions, for all are described in such a way that they appear to be good and we might say extra good. If one of experience cannot select the best, how is the average amateur going to select them? I for- merly had the mistaken idea that the more varieties the cata- logue contained the better, but now I believe the fewer the bet- ter, provided they are the best obtainable. If I ever issue an- other catalogue I shall have fewer varieties, but those the best of their color. The past summer I compared my irises when in bloom with this end in view. I now have twenty varieties of German Irises in my catalogue that are blue of different shades and markings and my next catalogue will contain but four or five. What is true of the iris is true of most flowers, but probably peonies are the most abused of all flowers in this respect. I have over 150 varieties of peonies and if three- quarters of them had never been named they would not have 64 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST been missed. If this is true of 150 varieties then how is it with the party who advertises 1,200 varieties and then has the au- ) dacity to say ‘all good ones’ YELLow [*rurrs.—One is warranted in expecting yellow- fruited forms of all fruits that are normally red, just as he is justified in expecting white-flowered forms from those with ordinarily blue or red blossoms. ‘The occurrence is a sort of recession on the part of the plants and appears to be due to a lack of the determiner that causes the deeper color to develop. Mr. D. J. Talcott writes of finding yellow fruit of the red- berried elder (Sambucus racemosus), Viburnum opulus, and Actaca rubra and notes that the golden queen raspberry is a sport from the cuthbert red. To this list the writer can add yellow fruited holly (/lea opaca) and winterberry (llex ver- ticillata) and yellow tomatoes are common. It would be interesting to make a complete list of the fruits of this kind and we shall be glad to note any other instances that may be called to our attention. Black fruits may sometimes have red-fruited forms, but it is usual for fruits of this color to produce white forms. White blackberries, white or pink blue- berries, and other white fruits are well known. VARIATION IN THE RATE OF EvoLuTIon.—A great deal of botany at present becomes a subject for elucidation by the philosopher. It no longer is thought to be mere chance that determines whether a given plant family shall number trees among its species, or consist only of herbs. It has been pointed out by E. W. Sinnott in an address before the Botanical So- ciety of America, that the rate of evolution must be very dif- ferent in trees and herbs. Herbs with the very brief period from seed to seed are able to accumulate changes much more quickly than can the slower growing trees and shrubs. New species, and even new genera, therefore, arise more quickly -among the herbs, and yet, while these plants often have nu- merous species in the genus the woody plants are said to out- THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 65 number them the world over. In order for the slowly changing trees and shrubs to produce so many species, a long period of time must have been necessary, and this suggests that the tree groups are much older than those containing only herbs. The fact that trees change more slowly than herbs is reflected in the catalogue of every nurseryman, for there are always a larger number of varieties catalogued for herbs than for woody plants. CAUSE OF LEAF MOvVEMENT.—A large number of plants are able to make changes in the position of their leaves as cir- cumstances warrant. In many cases these changes seem di- rected by something akin to intelligence, though explained in other ways. One of the commonest instances of this is found in the sunflowers, whose leaves, and often the flowers, turn toward the sun all day. In the so-called “sleep” of plants the leaves or leaflets usually fold together though the plants do not sleep in the accepted sense of that term. Still another set of movements seem connected with evaporation. On a hot, dry day, the leaves of corn roll up, the compass plant sets its great leaves on edge and the leaves of many other plants, especially those of the Leguminosae, assume positions that ensure a re- duced evaporating surface. An investigation of such phenom- ena has shown that such changes are entirely automatic and are produced by the very condition which the leaves seek to avoid. When one side of a thin board begins to dry out, the fibers contract and in consequence it warps or curves toward the dry side. In a similar way leaves may lose enough water from the upper surface to cause the whole leaf to roll up. In cases where the leaf changes position without rolling, some special part of the petiole usually reacts to evaporation. Changes of this kind may be produced artificially by the appli- cation of some drying agent, like alcohol, to the surface of the leaf. 66 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST DousLe WuiteE TrILLIuM.—Mr. D. J. Talcott, Madison, Ohio, sends us a remarkable double flower of the large white trillium (Trillium gradiflorum) which consists entirely of petals—twenty-one in all. Not only have all the other floral parts been turned into petals but the flower has acquired two extra whorls of three parts each. The whole flower is quite rose-like and would make a desirable addition to the garden. The rhizome which produced this specimen bore two other flowers of the same kind and was found in a colony of the regular type. Mr. Talcott writes that he has experimented with trillium rhizomes and finds that they will grow from divisions as readily as irises do. Cotors IN Witp Livies.—The article in the February number of the American Botanist concerning the meadow lily (Lilium Canadense) is of much interest to me, as in my field study I have found the same variations in color and form in the wood lily (Liliwm Philadelphicum). This is also called by Gray, wild orange-red lily from its color. The variety andinum, which he locates farther west, is quite abundant in swampy woods or thickets near the other on the island of Marthas Vineyard, Mass. ‘This latter variety usually grows taller, has one or three or sometimes as many as four blossoms of a beautiful deep red shade at the top of the stem—M. [If the wood lily varies from red to yellow, this would seem to be an added indication that the meadow lily’s change of color is not a specific character. More observatiens on this color of Lilium Canadense are needed.—ED, | NATURE VERSUS THE GARDENER.—I wish more things were like the English sparrow. How it thrives although every man’s hand 1s against it. But we must spray fruit, and use serum on meat animals and doctor the soil which produces the cereals. It always pleases me to visit a patch of wild plums; they get along without bothering anyone. What a fight man is compelled to make for the apple, and what a free gift the THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 67 wild plum is! I lately rode through the country in an auto- mobile and the road was lined with wild crab-apple trees. They were in full bloom and very beautiful but no one had sprayed them or trimmed them: they were a free gift of nature. Are the English sparrows, the wild plums and the wild crab- apples so healthy because they have never been reformed? —Ed Howe in The Independent, WHEN TO GATHER Cattaits.—The rich brown floral spikes of the stately cattail flag, common everywhere in marshy lands, are a great temptation to bring indoors for home decoration in the autumn, but the fluffing of the heads destroys their beauty, as well as makes trouble for the housewife. This fluffing is due to the cattail being gathered when too mature. If the stalks are cut early in summer, immediately upon the spikes turning brown, it will generally be found that they retain their beauty indoors throughout the winter.—S. SNow As A PLANT PROTECTION.—Reports from various sources indicate that not for many years have the spring wild- flowers been so abundant or so beautiful as this season. Trailing arbutus has rarely been so perfect in foliage and purity of color. Violets, bloodroot, hepatica, spring beauty and other gems of the woodland seem to have found the peculiar characteristics in the weather of the recent winter and spring greatly to their liking, and in our gardens the same healthy vigor and profuseness of bloom is in evidence among all the low-growing spring flowering border plants. The reason for it all is easily discerned in the deep snow which this year covered so large a section of the country and pro- tected these things against the ferocity of the February and March weather. In many of the spring flowering garden shrubs, it is interesting and instructive to note the well-defined line of the snow blanket, flowers being produced in profusion on the lower branches of forsythia and azaleas of the Daurica type, while above the line every flower is blasted. At this 68 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST season of the year, one of the most momentous questions for the gardener is that of the effect of the winter on many of the most prized garden favorites. One can never be sure, until buds are well along, as to what he may expect from his rhododendrons, cornuses, wistarias, early clematises and many other things which because of their precocity are so easily started into activity by a few warm days in early winter, and their flowerbuds, divested of their protecting overcoats, doomed to be ruined later on. The problem of winter and spring effect is full of puzzling contradictions and one year’s deduc- tions are quite likely to be overthrown by the experiences of the next year. But one thing is sure—deep snow, long tarry- ing, is the garden’s best winter friend.—Horticulture. REPRODUCTION IN TREES.—I read in the February, 1916, number of the American Botanist some astonishing state- ments under the above caption, viz., ‘the oak begins to bear when it is between sixty and seventy years old, the ash between forty and fifty.” The statements are taken from W. B. Beach in Tree Talk. ‘1 do not know where the writer is so unfortu- nate as to have his residemce where he can expect to see so little of the “fruit of his labors” in tree planting, but I assure him we do not have to wait any such length of time in fertile Nebraska. There is an English oak (Quercus pedunculata) on the campus of the University of Nebraska that bore acorns ten years ago when the tree could not have been over 25 years old. The University was founded in 1869, so that ten years ago it was 35 years old. The tree is very thrifty and has no marks of age except its acorns, The mossy overcup oak (Q. macrocarpa) is common over most of Nebraska and bears when it is eight or ten feet high, possibly fifteen to twenty years old. Quercus acuminata bears at about the same age, and Q. prinoides when three feet high. The white ash of eastern Nebraska and the prairie ash (Fravinus campestris) of all Nebraska make six to ten inches of growth a year and THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 69 bear when not over ten feet high. Since writing the above, I find a prairie ash not over ten or twelve years old bearing fruit in Hastings in front of the Rectory walk.—Rev. J. M. Bates, Red Cloud, Nebr. [We had our suspicions about some of the statements made in the article criticised but, felt sure that if they were open to question our readers would discover them. We are agreeably surprised and pleased to find how carefully this magazine is read by scientists and scholars whose time is valuable. The best part of this matter is that we copied the article in question not from the original source but from a magazine that copied it and the readers of neither magazine took exception to the statements. All of which proves—but why make the other magazines jealous ?—Ep. | UsreruLt PiGwEEpDs.—Apropos of the interesting note in the February number of the American Botanist concerning quinoa and other species of Chenopodium, I might mention the use by the Pacific Coast Indians of at least two species of the same homely genus. One of these, C. Californicum has a root with pronounced saponaceous qualities and on being crushed in water it forms a lather. This was used as a soap and the plant is known as soap-plant by Americans familiar with this characteristic. The seeds of this species, as well as those of C. Fremonti (abundant in Oregon), were also used for pinole, being toasted and ground into flour to which water was then added to make an edible mush. Probably under cultivation these plants could be made a valuable source of human food, just as quinoa has been.—C. F. Saunders. [In the current number of the National Geographical Magazine, O. F. Cook writes that two species of Chenopodium are regularly planted for food by the Peruvians and that these are the only seed crops grown in the elevated districts that are too cold for corn. One of these, the real quinoa, grows to a height of three or four feet and is chiefly valued for making beer. Only the white seeded variety is considered edible, the 70 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST other varieties being very bitter so that they have to be boiled with several changes of water to make them palatable. The white quinoa, according to this writer, makes an excellent breakfast food fairly comparable with oatmeal both as to taste and texture. The second pigweed is called canihua and is used exclusively for food. The seeds are much smaller than those of quinoa and of a grayish color. They are slightly parched and then ground into a fine flour. The chief use of canihua is as a travel ration for the shepherds.—ED. | DuRATION OF LIFE IN RUDBECKIA.—If you leave it to the books, the black-eyed Susan (/udbeckia hirta) isa biennial ; that is, it devotes the first summer of its existence to accumu- lating sufficient food materials for the formation of flowers and seeds and, after these have been produced, the second summer it dies. But the plants themselves, do not view the matter in this light. They are really perennials. In the editor’s garden there are plants of this species that have been there five or six years and show no signs of giving up the struggle. The fact is, that if the Rudbeckias are left unpro- tected during the winter, some of them may fail to resume growth in the spring, but this may happen to any plant if the winter is one of alternating cold and warmth with the conse- quent heaving of the ground by frost. The plants are not killed by mere cold, however. On the other hand it is not unusual to find in a bed of seedlings many plants that are ready to flower two months from the time they appeared above ground. Possibly all the plants would flower the first year if given an equal start in spring. It is possible, however, that there is both an annual and perennial strain in this species similar to that well known in its relatives the gaillardias, which might be developed by breeding. DECORATIVE GALIUMS.—By many lovers of flowers, the species of Galiwm are regarded as insignificant weeds and the opinion can not be challenged if the goose-grass or cleavers THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 71 (Galiwm aparine) is selected as the type, but there are a few whose beauty or usefulness lifts them out of this category. The northern bedstraw (Galiwm borcale) is beautiful and decorative enough to be admitted to the flower garden, and indeed is occasionally cultivated, though it manages very well for itself along roadsides and on moist banks where its tiny, though numerous, white flowers form conspicuous patches. A nearly related species (Galiwm mollugo), evidently named for its resemblance to the Indian chickweed (Mollugo verti- culata), is frequently cultivated. The flowers though exceed- ingly small are borne in such myriads that its common name of Scotch mist seems fairly descriptive. Beginning about midsummer it blooms for a month or more and is highly valued for adding to bouquets of sweet peas and other flowers whose beauty of form is one of their distinguishing character- istics. It is often called baby’s breath, but this name is regarded as belonging by rights to one of the pinkworts— Gypsophila panculata. Our plant is a native of Europe but has escaped from cultivation in various places in the North Atlantic States. The common name of cleavers, applied to members of the Galiwm genus, is equivalent to the term “stickers” applied to other plants whose seeds or stems cling to the clothing of animals or even of man himself. Foop oF THE RoBIN.—Just across the street from where this is written, a robin is rearing a family in a lofty elm and feeding it with insects from our garden. Everybody knows in a general way that robins eat earthworms and the larvae of various insects, but it is not until some such opportunity as this brings the matter to one’s attention that he realizes how great the number and variety of insects captured, or that the bird has preferences in the matter of diet. As soon as the writer goes into the garden, the mother bird appears and demands food by numerous insistent chirps. She seems to regard digging in the garden as one of Nature’s schemes 72 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST for providing bird food and is so intent on securing’ this that some care has to be exercised to avoid stepping on her. Early in the season, earthworms were apparently quite ac- ceptible food, but with the advent of young ones, a decided fondness for cutworms, wireworms, white grubs and May- beetles was apparent and the earthworms were neglected. Of the entire list of insects, the white grubs were first in favor. Nothing else could induce the robin to feed from the hand, but the sight of the squirming, fat, white grubs always overcame her caution. The number of harmful insects that a single robin will pick up in an hour is astonishing. Apparently the only representatives of animal life left in our garden are the earth- worms. The only point for concern in this, is that there may possibly be nothing left to attract our bird another year, but if this should happen we will import some. TwistEp STEMS.—A subscriber on the Pacific Coast writes: “The other day when walking on the Marin County hills near San Francisco a young engineer told me that’the 1idges in the bark of coniferous trees follow a spiral about the tree always toward the right. He pointed to a Douglas fir to confirm his statement and I could see a very slight tendency for the lines to vary somewhat from the perpendicular toward the right. I had never noticed it and fear I am somewhat skeptical as to its being an invariable custom. Is this known to be a fact, and if so, why? Inthe high sierras I have seen dead junipers that looked as though they had been twisted all the way around, but thought that this might have been due to the constant winds.” At the tip of a growing stem, there is a group of cells which by frequent division add to its length. The new cells formed are at first much smaller than mature cells and increase in size by lengthening and stretching. The lengthening process appears not to occur simultaneously throughout the stem but follows a spiral path, which in most plants might be described as winding upward to the right. Why growth should proceed in this man- THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 73 ner is unexplained. Possibly it is a survival from early an- cestors in which a single apical cell carries growth upward, as in ferns, where first one cell and then another is cut off from a single apical cell in a never-ending spiral. The leaves of plants, are also arranged on the stem in spirals and twining stems wrap themselves about their supports in a similar way. If a twining stem that has risen above the earth and is feeling about for a support be watched, it will be found to travel round and round in ever-widening circles, and this is also caused by the peculiari- ties of cell growth already referred to. It is possible, therefore, that the twist in the bark and wood of trees is produced in the same way. In trunks of trees that have been stripped of their bark, such as those used for telegraph and telephone poles, the twist in the wood is sometimes very noticeable. A DEspIsER OF GARDENS.—Probably there is no subject in the whole world that everybody would agree on; even the gentle art of gardening has its critics. One of the world’s fore- most literary men, noted for his culture and refinement, wrote as follows in reference to gardening. “A garden is an ugly thing. Even when best managed it is an assembly of unfortun- ate beings, pampered and bloated above their natural size; stewed and heated into diseased growth; corrupted by evil communication into speckled and inharmonious colors; torn from the soil which they loved, and of which they were the spirit and glory, to glare away their term of tormented life among the mixed and incongruous essences of each other, in earth that they know not and in air that is poison to them.” Pretty strong, isn’t it? And the writer was John Ruskin! FN. EDITORIAL Si NU A good many years ago, as we reckon time at this office, a botanical society existed in the United States which was unique in consisting of members who had never seen one another, and it was not promoted by institutions for the blind either. The members were possessed of all the faculties vouchsafed ordinary mortals with possibly a few others as distinguishing marks, but residing in widely separated localities, they found it desirable to conduct the affairs of the society by correspondence. The soci- l1 sections and each member reported quarterly to his division secretary. The reports, prop- ety was divided into geographica erly arranged, were then circulated from member to member. A better scheme for promoting botanical study could scarcely be imagined. The spirit of co-operation and helpfulness that per- vaded the membership made the association of great value to all who had a place in it, Each felt himself charged with the duty of discovering at least one new thing in botany by the time the quarterly reports were due and was stimulated thereby to a deeper interest in the subject. The lasting effects of such an interest has since become apparent, for looking over the old lists of members, beginners and amateurs in those days, one finds more than one name that is now written high on the roll of science. Although a corresponding society with widely scat- tered members, various opportunities made personal acquaint- ance possible and the editor counts among his valued expert- ences several lasting friendships made in this way. We do not know whether the society is in existence or not, but it ought to be. Some of the old members, who continue to read this maga- THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 75 zine, will doubtless be able to enlighten us on this point. In some respects the readers of this magazine remind us of this old society. We seldom ask for information on an obscure point without getting a reply, and as for mistakes, we have never yet been able to print a misstatement of fact ‘and get away with it. Even a mis-spelled word will often bring a shower of letters if the correction seems important. We call attention to these things here for the benefit of certain new readers who might otherwise be some time in finding out that one of the best features of this magazine is formed hy the short notes which anybody can contribute and which are often suggested by the notes of others. There are altogether too many botan- ists who think no fact is important unless several pages of type are necessary to elucidate it. RE: The world has long been inclined to poke fun at its concep- tion of the botanist who is usually represented as an amiable elderly gentleman equipped with manual, trowel, vasculum, and lens, wandering about the fields, ogling the flowers through a elass, and so intent on his hobby as to be oblivious to all else. The devotees of modern botany, too, absorbed in the study of cells, chromosomes, and unit characters, and forgetting the foundation upon which even their studies are based, are wont to look with some disdain on the mere collector and namer of plants. Time was, however, when he who knew the names of plants was the only person thought worthy to bear the title of botanist, and though the days are forever gone in which the taxonomist was chief, there is still much to be said in favor of the analysis of flowers and the making of an herbarium; of the times when botany was spoken of as “the amiable science” and attracted to its study all intelligent lovers of nature. In these more degenerate days, most of the botanists are made within the walls of college or university. Often they develop without ever seeing plants in their entirety and are brought up on sec- 76 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST tions and microscopic mounts. Their attempts at naming the species with which they work often amuse the taxonomist who, though dubbed a mere collector, did not arrive at his knowledge of plants without a strenuous apprenticeship in solving the intricacies of his phase of the science, during which his percep- tions were sharpened, his judgment quickened, and his powers of deduction strengthened. The individual who knows inti- mately the flora of his region is entitled to both the respect and admiration of the community. He should be an object of envy were it not in every man’s province to do likewise. Botany as a vocation, compared with other phases of science, is an underpaid and profitless pursuit, but botany as an avocation, especially plant collecting and plant naming, is still the amiable science. What other study can so completely take one away from the cares of ordinary life? Every excursion afield is a vacation trip into unknown regions. With one or more like- minded companions, equipped with lunch and collecting case, the botanizer enters a new world from his very doorstep; pok- ing about the hedgerows, exploring strange woodlands and un- familiar ravines, making voyages of discovery along pond and stream, and everywhere, from meadow to mountain top, mak- ing new acquaintances, accumulating unexpected treasures and steadily adding to those impressions which it will always be a joy to recall. And then, when his dwelling is reached at the end of a day’s tramp, comfortably tired he sits down with books and specimens and lives over again the day’s adventures, veri- fying his suspicion that some unfamiliar plant is a rarity to be prized, discovering that he has extended the known range of a species, or possibly finding among his specimens new forms or varieties. Small wonder that in the days when all botany was like this, amiable was the only proper term with which to char- acterize it. BOOKS AND WRITERS A new bi-monthly journal, devoted to recording data bearing on heredity, has begun publication at Princeton, N. J. It bears the title of Genetics and costs $1.00 a number. Judging from the first issue the contents are likely to prove too technical for any but the advanced student though doubtless exceedingly valuable for reference in all that pertains to its field. After one has seen a student of the mosses peering through a compound microscope at some all-but-invisible peri- stome or leaf-cell, he is likely to get the idea that the study of mosses cannot be successfully carried on without the aid of the optician, but such is not exactly the case. In genera containing numerous species that closely resemble one another, a resort to the microscope may be imperative, but it is quite possible to recognize many species without even a simple lens. The re- viewer, many years ago, took to collecting mosses, but lacking . the patience and the books to properly name them, was kindly helped out of the difficulty by a friend in Concord, New Hamp- shire. After a specimen was once named, however, he found very little difficulty in recognizing it again when encountered. The mosses have so many peculiarities of growth, habitat, color, and structure as to fairly warrant the claim of “How to Know the Mosses”, by Elizabeth Marie Dunham, that it will enable the beginner to name his plants without a lens. The book consists of descriptions of about 80 genera and 150 species of the common mosses in the North-eastern States with illustra- tions of most of the species described. Two complete keys, based on the leaves and capsules respectively, are given, and several explanatory chapters make clear the few technical mat- ters mentioned in the book. Naming the mosses by the use of this book should be both fascinating and easy. As in other studies, the first few species will be the hardest to name, but THE AMERICAN BOTANIST ~7 10 4) by selecting the more characteristic forms, and therefore the most easily identified, first, these will act as guides along the way and make the rest easy. The book contains nearly 300 pages and is published by Houghton Mifdin & Co., Boston at $1.25 net. “House Plants; Their Care and Culture” by Hugh Find- lay is, as its name indicates, a guide to the care of the plants in the house, which begins with several chapters on soils, potting, watering, and the like, and then discusses the needs of the different plants usually grown in houses. As regards the direc- tions given, it may be said that they are practical and to the point, though not always as scientifically accurate as one would expect from a professor in Syracuse University. For instance we suspect that a good many physiological botanists, would scarcely subscribe to the statement on page 45 that ‘“‘The leaves are the lungs of the plant and if these are clogged by dust the plant catches cold, sickens and dies.” In the section devoted to the care of individual species, some account is first given of the group to which the plant belongs and a list of the more valuable vari- eties for house cultivation are usually given. We note the use of the words Natural Order for what botanists universally call the family, and various scientific names are also mis-spelled, but these faults: do not detract from the correctness of the cul- tural directions given. The book contains more than 300 pages and 125 illustrations. It is published by D, Appleton & Co., New York and costs $1.50 net. We have received a circular describing six books on fungi which the author asks us to notice in this column. His circular states, however, that he makes no reduction to anybody, dealers included and supplies no copies for examination, from which we infer that any exchange of courtesies we may be inclined to all on one side. make will be quite like the handle of a jug A dealer who invests his money in advertising and postage designed to make an author’s books more widely known cer- THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 79 tainly deserved some recompense and even magazines cost money to issue. Few dealers are disposed to push a given book for mere love of the writer, but there are a lot of embryo scien- tists coming along that take this very peculiar view of the mat- ter. Until we are converted, however, we are going to let our author advertise his own books. In 1897, the late Prof. E. S. Goff, of the University of Wisconsin, issued a little book on “The Principles of Plant Culture” of which seven editions have appeared. Now comes the eighth, revised by Professors J. G. Moore and L. R. Jones of the same university. The title may sound as if the book were designed for the teaching of agriculture, but it has a wider field. It is, indeed, a clear account of the fundamentals upon which all plant growing rests. The agriculturist seldom goes beyond knowing how; the present book will tell him why. Though the related information is arranged in definite chap- ters, each paragraph is usually a complete account of the phase of the subject treated, so that the book may be read backward or forward or may be begun in the middle. The practical botanist can scarcely open the book anywhere without finding something of interest, and he can feel sure that it is authorita- tive and up-to-date. All individuals with enough interest in plant life to become good botanists ought to have the book. If he cannot find what he wants in it, we do not know who can tell him. The Macmillan Company, New York, are the pub- lishers. The price is $2.25. The success of Stevens’ “Plant Anatomy” has necessi- tated a third edition, and this, revised and enlarged, has just ap- peared from the press of P. Blakiston’s Son & Co., Philadel- phia. The general excellence of the work is well known, but it may not be amiss to note again that it is arranged on a con- structive plan beginning with cells and tracing their modifica- tions through the various tissues of the plant. The activities of the cells, as expressed in such functions as absorption, trans- 80 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST piration, photosynthesis, secretion, excretion, storage, and re- production, all have chapters devoted to them, after which come chapters on the use of the microscope, reagents and proc- esses, the microchemistry of plant products and the adultera- tions in foods and drugs. The book is now an octavo of 400 pages with more than 150 illustrations. The price is $2.50 net. A loose-leaf “Manual of Soil Physics” containing forty- four exercises by P, B. Baker and H. J. Young, of the Uni- versity of Nebraska, has been issued by Ginn & Co. Following the directions for performing each experiment, there are several questions regarding the results obtained. The authors state that the manual has sufficient material in it for two semesters work, but to the reviewer it would seem as if a class might cover the ground in much less time, The experiments are those usually given in high school classes. Teachers of Agriculture should find them of considerable value. The price of the note- book in the “Biflex” binder is 65 cents. NATURE STUDY REVIEW OFFICIAL JOURNAL American Nature-Study Society Again Enlarged Beautifully Printed Profusely Illustrated An inspiration to Students, Teachers, Rural Leaders and Superintendents. Filled each month with material and suggestions from the pens of the fore- most Nature-Study Teachers. Price (including membership in the American Nature-Study Society) $1.00 per year. Subscribe Now (Add for Canadian postage 10c. postage, 20c.) With American Botanist, one year, $1.50. Foreign Address all Orders to THE NATURE STUDY REVIEW ITHACA, N. Y. SCHOOL SCIENCE MATHEMATICS Covers the Earth HERE IS THE LIST OF COUNTRIES TO WHICH IT GOES EACH MONTH: Every State In the United States, every Province in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, Brazil, Argentine, Chile, Peru, Ecuador. Every country in Europe, Including Turkey, Egypt, Liberia, Cape Colony, The Transvaal, Persia, Ceylon, India, China, Korea, Japan, Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii. GET YOUR FRIENDS TO SUBSCRIBE NOW EIGHT DEPARTMENTS: Botany. Chemistry, Earth Science, Mathe- matics, Problems, Physics, Science Ques- tions and Zoology. SEND IN YOUR SUBSCRIPTION $2.00 PER YEAR School Science and Mathematics 2059 EAST 72nd PLACE CHICAGO, ILL The Modern Gladiolus Grower Published monthly in the interests of both amateurs and professionals. 3 years for $1.50—75c per year The Gladiolus has been wonderfully im- proved and is rapidly becoming the fashion. mportant developments are looked for in the immediate future. Madison Cooper, Publisher, Calcium, N. Y. A Botanical Textbooklet Designed to aid the beginner in recognizing the members of the larger plant families in the field. Has a key to the principal plant families, fourteen illustrations and nearly fifty pages of text in which the color and structure of the flowers are given, the dis- tribution or the species noted and much other information of an economic or eco- logical nature added. PRICE 25c Free with All New Subscriptions to American Botanist WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO. JOLIET, ILL. Volume X XI OF THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 160 Pages 107 Articles 20 Illustrations Price $1.00 Postpaid Vol. XX! and the current one $1.50 Vol. XXI with order for books .60 A full set of the Magazine to the end of the present volume, 2960 pages, thousands of articles, $12.00. Willard N. Clute & Co. JOLIET, ILL. AGRONOMY A Course in Practical Gardening for High Schools By Willard N. Clute. A book for the spring semester designed to give the student a knowledge of the principles that underlie Landscape Gardening, Horticulture and the Improve- ment of Plants. A full account of gardening processes, practical directions for garden making and many exercises in related subjects. Though designed for school use, there is no book better adapted for the amateur gardener. 8vo. 300 pages and nearly 200 illustrations. $1.00 postpaid. Our Ferns In Their Haunts By Willard N. Clute Careful descriptions of all the ferns in Eastern North America with special regard to their haunts and habits. Every species illustrated. There is also an illustrated key by means of which even the beginner can identify his specimens. ‘The most popular American fern book. 8vo. 333 pages, 225 illustrations and 8 colored plates, $2.15 post- paid. Fern Allies of North America By Willard N. Clute A companion volume to “Our Ferns” which describes all the fern allies in North America, north of Mexico. The only popular book on the subject in the English language. A full account of the club mosses, scouring rushes, selaginellas and re- lated plants. Has seven keys to the species. 8vo. 250 pages, 150 illustrations and 8 colored plates, $2.15 post- paid. THE FERN COLLECTORS’ GUIDE By Willard N. Clute. A little book of a size to fit the pocket and designed to aid the student in finding, identifying and preserving his specimens. Has an illustrated key to all the species, a complete glossary, and a checklist of the eastern American ferns with space for notes. A valuable guide for the beginning student. 60 pages, several illustrations. 54cents postpaid. LABORATORY BOTANY FOR THE HIGH SCHOOL By Willard N. Clute. A new and unique manual founded on the inductive method of teaching botany which covers a year’s work in the subject. Simplifies the work of both teacher and student without lowering the standard of the course. flexible. Can be condensed or extended at any point. gathering, preparing, and presenting material. 12mo. 177 pages. Absolutely Full instructions for Many other valuable features. 75 cents postpaid. The American Botanist will be sent one year for 60 cents when ordered with any book in this list. Address all orders tc WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., JOLIET, ILLINOIS. Vol. 22. No. 3 Whole Number 110 AUGUST, 1916 25 Cents a Copy: $1.00 a Year WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO. JOLIET, ILLINOIS The American Botanist A Quarterly Journal of Economic & Ecological Botany WILLARD N. CLUTE, EDITOR SUBSCRIPTIONS.—The subscription price of this magazine is $1.00 a year or $1.50 for two years, payable strictly in advance. Personal checks on small or distant banks must contain ten cents for collection fees. The magazine is issued on the 20th of February, May, August and November, BACK NUMBERS.—Volumes 1 to 10 inclusive consists of 6 numbers each, Vols. 11 to 13 of 5 numbers each and all later volumes of 4 numbers each. The first 18 volumes may be had for 75 cents a volume, or the set will be sent for $9.00. A full set contains 2312 pages. THE FERN BULLETIN In 1913, at the completion of its twentieth volume, The Fern Bulletin was consoli- dated with this magazine. The back volumes average more than 100 pages each, and since they cover the entire formative period of American Fern study they are invaluable for reference. The majority of new forms discovered in recent Be have been described in its pages. First six volumes out of print. A set of vols. 7 to 20 will be sent for $7.00. An extended description of the contents of the volumes may be had for the asking.: WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., PUBLISHERS 207 WHITLEY AVENUE, JOLIET, ILL. ENTERED AS MAIL MATTER OF THE SECOND CLASS AT THE POST OFFICE, JOLIET, ILL. cA BOTANICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA There is no botanical publication in the whole world that contains as much information of value to the plant lover as THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. Since the beginning it has consistently made a specialty of those fugitive notes about plants, which other journals neglect, but which are at the base of any intelligent interest in plants. Nowhere else can one find so many and varied notes on such subjects as latex, perfume, flower color, nectar, pollen, dyes, soaps, pollination, drug plants, edible wild plants, seed dispersal, freaks, Mendel’s law, evolution, the Mutation theory, the use of the various parts in the economy of the plant, etc., etc. In the cumulative index to the contents of the volumes in this office, there are 138 divisions, many of them with 50 or more titles each. There are literally thousands of articles. If bound in one volume, the numbers would make a book larger than the largest dictionary. The information they contain can be found nowhere else. All the large libraries as well as many private individuals have complete sets, and every plant lover should follow their example. We have less than 60 sets left as this is written. Get a set while you ean. The first 22 volumes will be sent unbound and postpaid for $12.00. WILLARD N. CLUTE © CO. JOLIET, ALE. 4 ar ae aie i ae. BLACKBERRY LILY.—Pardanthus Chinensis. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST VOL. XXII JOLIET, ILL., AUGUST, 1916 No. 3 Yow from the thyme upon the height, And from the elder blossoms white, And pale dog roses in the hedge, And from the mint plant on the ledge, In putts of balm the night air blows Ohe perfume which the day forgoes. Jind on the pure horizon far, See, pulsing with the first-born star Ohe liguid sky above the hill. Ohe evening comes, the field ts still, —Matthew Arnold. THE BLACKBERRY LILY By WILLARD N. CLUTE. F one desires to see the blackberry lily (Pardanthus Chi- nensis) at its best, it is likely that he will have to visit some old-fashioned garden where new styles in flowers are slow to penetrate. Here in some sunny corner, in company with bleeding hearts, asphodels, foxgloves and other plants dear to our grandmother’s hearts, he may find its yellow-green sword-shaped leaves and branching trusses of curiously mot- tled flowers adding their note to the prevalent air of quaint- ness. Judged by standards of beauty alone, the blackberry lily must yield to many a denizen of the modern garden, and no — longer finds favor in the eyes of cultivators, but undisturbed by this change in public opinion, it has slipped through the Ut 82 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST fence and struck out for itself like the toad-flax, musk-mallow ; tawny day lily, tall cinquefoil and other outcasts from the garden, and may be found here and there colonizing a bit of roadside for itself with a fine show of independence. In both flower and fruit this plant is so unique that a good many flower lovers still find a place for it in their collec- tions. I know of no other flowers so curiously mottled and barred. The generic name, Pardanthus, under which I have chosen to list it, is especially appropriate since it signifies leopord flower. Modern taxonomists, however, insist that the correct name is Belamcanda—a term by which it appears to be known in its home land. Though called a lily, it bears.this title by courtesy only. It is really one of the Iridaceae, as its three stamens and inferior ovary indicate. The flowers, however, have more the appear- ance of lilies than irises, for they spread out in the six pointed stars with which we are familiar in many of the Liliaceae. The three outer segments of the perianth—really the calyx— are distinguished by their slightly paler shade. The ground color of both calyx and corolla is a sort of tawny yellow and this is overlaid with bars, dots, and splashes of dull purplish red, The flowers last but a single day, opening rather late in the morning and closing about sunset, the perianth rolling up on the top of the ovary in a tight little twist. New flowers continue to open, however, and the blooming season lasts for many weeks. Shortly after flowering, the seed pods become noticeable. At first they are triangular green objects like ordinary iris ovaries, but as the season progresses the outer husk splits down into pale gray papery valves exposing the shining black seeds attached to a stout axis, the whole very closely resem- bling a ripe blackberry. The seeds are covered with a thin pulp—treally an aril like those of bittersweet and pomegranate and the whole structure almost entitles us to call it a berry. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 83 It really is as much of a berry, as the blackberry and rasp- berry, for botanically, even these are not berries. In growth, the blackberry lily is so much like an iris that for all purposes of cultivation it may be treated as if it were an iris. It multiplies vegetatively by means of a branching rootstock, but the seeds germinate readily and young plants reach blooming size about the second year. When once estab- lished, it seems to require little care, but it is all the better for a mulch of leaves or straw during the winter, especially in the more northern parts of the country, Though never so con- spicuous as its relatives, the gladiolus and iris, it nevertheless deserves sanctuary in the garden and will repay such kindness by thriving in any odd corner. AN IDEAL SERIES FOR THALLOPHYTE- BRYOPHYTE STUDY By R. I. RAyMonD. T IS the writer’s conviction, after some eleven years of teaching Freshmen classes in Botany and Biology, that the commonly suggested type-series of Thallophytes and Bryo- phytes, as found in most text-books and laboratory manuals, is not as desirable an introduction to these plant phyla as may easily be produced, and this too whether the series be looked at as an introduction to phylogenetic conceptions, or as picturing physiologic-morphologic advances, or as simply typifying the great groups in certain select representatives. One cannot escape the conviction, moreover, that the usual types are chosen, in almost stereotyped fashion as texts come and go, for the very poor reason that they are easily procurable —as if that might be taken as a good reason for inclusion or exclusion of this or that organism. But the days of “Clado- 84 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST phora”’ as an algal specimen, and ‘‘Marchantia” as an all-suffi- cient exemplification of a liverwort are gone, we trust forever; and the large variety of genera and species offered by the bio- logical supply houses today renders a defense of the haphazard choice of illustrative types both futile and needless. To be specific: we desire to have specimens that will (1) adequately represent the groups, without undue specialization, —‘central types”; (2) offer a progressive sequence in phy- siology and morphology without sacrifice of natural relation- ships; and (3) picture the main lines and data of phylogenetic history, and do this without implying precarious genealogical hypotheses. Now it is just this list of desiderata that the “orthodox” types, as we might almost dub them, fail to satisfy. To begin with, we wish an exceedingly primitive, isolate, holophytic cell with which to commence the Thallophytes (I include here the Protophytes), and what do we find proposed? Plewrococcus,— or worse, Oscillatoria. The first is already triply specialized beyond the imperatively simple structure of a primordial type; for it possesses a nucleus, chromoplasts, and a cellulose wall; and the second is an even more fraudulent substitute for the thallophytic “precurseur’’, it is even filamentous! Again, take the (Chlorophyceae: why pick the bizarre Sphae- rella as a type in place of the ideally unspecialized Chlamydo- monas? And why on earth suggest even Pandorina or Volvox? Can we get “to anywhere” in botany by following the morula- blastula road so clearly indicated in these organisms? And why present the Zygophycean cul-de-sac to the bewilderment of the neophyte? Such groups lead to nothing and profit the student not one idea, except a trifle of curious data in algology. What is the use, moreover, of introducing the unusual and never-to-be-met-with-again problem of coenocytism in Vauch- eria—unless it is at once followed up by the treatment of the THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 85 Phycomycete problem? And among the Phaeophyceae, it is almost perverse to select Fucus, when Ectocarpus and Lantun- aria might be chosen and would present in simplest and vivid form the double problem of phaeophycean derivation and evolution toward the thalloid type. When we get to the Bryophytes things are somewhat better, but the Fungi leave us with the uncomfortable feeling of having witnessed a waxwork show. It really is not incumbent upon a botanical text writer to fish up every devious bit of morphology and reproduction in his mycological treasure- house; he might do vastly better to simplify his material and order it in some fashion other than mere taxonomy suggests. And are we all so afraid of our smugly cherished “authority” that we cannot suggest to the student where likelihood of relationship lies? Can we not at least follow the results of latest authoritative research, and give the tyro the comfort of that? No line of fungi dropped down from heaven or instituted itself by any geratio aequivoca, Every one of these groups has an origin in holophytic ancestry, and where the connection is even partially evident, it should be put before the student, how- ever tentatively one feels it need be done. The German texts are away ahead of us in this respect; there is no timidity in their handling of morphologic problems or of phylogeny, But of the fungi and their typic exemplification more anon, In the Bryophytes there still lingers the Marchantia tradi- tion that will continue to claim an absurdly disproportionate amount of space in comparison with the importance of the curious group. But, (1 cannot avoid the feeling of debt here to Campbell’s archegoniate studies), the truly representative genera, such as Pellia, Ricciocarpus, Anthoceros, are being given their due. One gets the impression that the mosses are still “lumped”, for there is little attempt made to get them into relation with the liverworts or to indicate their own progress; 86 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST but after all that is a minor matter, for the mosses are unim- portant little beings, however interesting for their own beaux veux, and the treatment of the unimportant is not of such great consequence. But the whole matter is different with the other groups mentioned. They do lay foundations—all the foundations of later plant history—and we have no right to pick at random the specimens that go into the picturing of those profoundly significant evolvings of primordial plant life. I have sketched out in the following what I have grown to consider an ideal series, from the standpoint of the consider- ations referred to above. Naturally, substitutions in it may be suggested, but in most cases, any substitution would lose some one or more of the desirable points presented in the “ideal” type enumerated. For the institution of plant study I select one of the nitrifying organisms, a non-chlorophyllous, non-flagellated organism, without nucleus, and with homogeneous (non- alveolar) protoplasm—the simplest holophyte conceivable. In such a form there is no stumbling-block for the student in the way of already present specializations. At the same time, it furnishes an ideally simple morphology in which the whole series of assimilation-reactions is accomplished: the synthesis of carbohydrates, of amino-acids, of proteins; and together with these the universally present respiratory, growth, and reproductive functions. To have these fundaments worked out in such an elementary exemplar simplifies their comprehension tremendously—that much as concession to good pedagogy ; and incidentally, this choice of example is vouched for by the best of authorities, Nature herself, inasmuch as without question such organisms were the earliest types. From the nitrifying bacteria (non-flagellated) the way to an understanding of the Chro6coccaceae and Oscillatoriaceae THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 87 is easy; for the alveolation of the cell-protoplasm with conse- quent increase in cell-volume, the primitive chromoplasts, and the primitive nucleus are simple steps to make; and the varieties of colonial (filament) organization offer no difficulties of interpretation. Again, one of the fagellated nitrifying bacteria (Nitro- monas) serves best as an introduction to the flagellate type of cell; for in the first place, there is hardly question but that flagellation historically preceded the other specializations of the Chlorophyceae, and, in the second place, such a simple type presents only the one new characteristic upon which we wish to concentrate attention. All the problems connected with locomotion may be treated here elementarily, yet satisfactorily. Chlamydomonas is a next selection as exemplifying the origin of the great Chlorophycean group. Here the discussion of the alveolation of protoplasm, the specialization of the hence- forth indispensable auxiliary, chlorophyll, and the significance of the nucleus and its phenomena, may all be taken up. Indeed, it seems to me most urgently advisable (and class-room exper- ience justifies the conclusion) to thrash out each problem in the earliest type in which it appears, rather than wait till we reach the complex types. Chlamydomonas, moreover, serves as an ideal introduction to the sex-problem in plants, and the evolu- tion of the pure isogamy found here will warrant considerable space of lecture-energy. For a type in which the advent of the walled, non-motile stage is indicated—yet in simpler form than the fillament- organization—Tetraspora, will serve. The significance of the cellulose restraint upon all later plant life is to be stressed here. Ulothrix is always an admirable introduction to the fila- ments—and to the fourfold zygote division that apparently instituted the later sporocarp and sporophyte. Stigeoclonium, in other respects like Ulothrix, exemplifies the origin of the 88 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST branching filament. Aphanochaete (1 admit a not very com- mon genus) presents an ideal alga for the exemplification of gamete-differentiation, together with the tendency toward con- crescence of branches that eventually leads to the thalloid types. The decided advantage of this genus in the presentation of gamete-differentiation lies in the fact of its obvious and im- mediate relationship with the preceding types and the succeed- ing. Citations of Cutleria or Pandorina and Volvox are quite beside the mark when such a satisfactory genus as Aphano- chaete is available for the demonstration. Coleochacte soluta serves as an excellent type for presenting the final differentia- tion of the sex-cells and for the significant increase in size of the fertilization-product, the sporocarp, C. scutata pictures the transition of body-form from a concrescent filamentous struc- ture to a leaf-like thallus. Right in this connection the problem of fungal origins is to be best taken up—as far as the Phycomycetes are concerned ; and it is well, pedagogically speaking, to utilize such vivid transitional cases for the stimulus they offer to the student in the direction of homologies and data of phylogenetic signifi- cance. Bessey’s consistent and courageous treatment of the alga-like fungi in close (in fact immediate) relation with their progenitors should have a more hearty assent, it seems to me, than we have given it. And there is little difficulty in introduc- ing the types through an ideal series. First the problem of coenocytism is to be worked out in the algal ancestry; and for this Cladophora and Vaucheria serve excellently. In the latter, the second problem, that of saprophytism, is raised and its solution indicated in the occurrence of the “rhizoids’. Sapro- legma next, with its incipient degeneration of the sexual process, introduces the fungal types proper (the student might well be referred here to the Phyllosiphonaceae). Albugo and Rhizopus, illustrate the further adaptation to aerial life and the ultimate degeneration of gamete-differentiation. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 89 In passing on to consider the brown algae it may be sug- gested that the laboratory study of but two types is sufficient for such an isolated group. As mentioned above, Ectocarpus and Cutleria are preferable to Fucus, inasmuch as in the first, we have simple filamentous body-structure passing into thalloid, and in the second thalloid, purely with very instructive differ- entiation of gametes; while the third type involves at once the complex thallus structure along with fully differentiated repro- ductive organs. The red algae may conveniently be treated by examination of the usual laboratory types, Nemalion and Polysiphomia. Perhaps one need not be too chary of finding homologies with the Coleochaetaceae, and of instancing the parasitic species in preparation for later study of the Ascomycetes. It may be well to remind authors here that the institution of the sporophyte generation is something that took place in time; that the reduc- tion divisions in the chromosomes that separate gametophyte from sporophyte generations are simply an immediate occur- ence in Coleochacte (and lower algae), a later incident of life- history in the Rhodophyceae; and that therefore the “chasm” between Chlorophyceae and Rhodophyceae is merely one of arbitrary assumption. The Ascomycetes are best treated in immediate connection with the red algae, for obvious reasons, and the homologies deserve much more than the casual mention they usually receive. An aquatic type should certainly be utilized to begin with, and the lichenous form Collema is advisable as easily available. The closest of homologies between this species and Rhodophycean types may be traced, as regards the whole reproductive process and organ-complex. The gradual ecologic shifts in habitat (aquatic to terrestrial) and nutritive method (symbiotic to parasitic) may be indicated for the group by following up Collema Sphaerotheca and with Pyronema, Only after con- 90 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST sideration of such two types should the complex apothecium- producing forms be taken up. In investigating the Basidiomycetes the beginner is best aided by starting with Ustilago—not the Hymenomcytes, as having too highly developed a sporophore, and not the Ure- dinales, since their study involves the puzzling succession of spores. After Ustilago, Exobasidum and Clavaria may be taken to illustrate the establishment of true basidium-structure and the origin of the fleshy sporophore. Hydnum and Agari- cus, finally, indicate the appearance of the pileus form of spore- bearing and the development of the characteristic gill- hymenium. The Gasteromycetes might well be left out of an elementry course. As we enter the Bryophyta, we need indications of the derivation of amphibious from aquatic habitat. [or this Ricciocarpus serves well, but we should be careful to make much of the land-thallus physiology—a subject almost neg- lected save in the matter of reproduction. Notothylas should be intercalated between the type just mentioned and dntho- ceros, because of its intermediate complexity in sporotype struc- ture; the leap from the spherical to the large columnar body being a real difficulty to the student. The Marchantia and Jungermannia forms may be passed over with little considera- tion, as with the Gasteromycetes. For the mosses it should be said that the series cannot be easily presented unless Sphagnum (not a “common moss”) be taken first—this of course on account of its gametophyte struc- ture as well as that of the sporophyte. A single true moss suf- fices for the Bryales,—it should not be the peculiarly complex Polytrichum. In the above choice of specimens for first-year work in the field indicated there will be found an avoidance of the specialized types that are so bristling with difficulties for THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 91 the novice, and on the other hand there will be found a series of forms, full of suggestiveness to the young comparative morphologist, and one serving at once to vitalize comparative physiology and give broad ground for evolutionary thought and taxonomic enthusiasm. BOTANIZING IN THE CORPUS CHRISTI REGION Bytke A] SELL. ORPUS CHRISTI BAY, being shut off from the Gulf of Mexico by a chain of narrow sand spits with only a few passes connecting, is one of the most attractive resorts in the world. Shallow salt water, tempered ocean breezes and the absence of an undertow combined with fishing grounds where an amateur can fish with some degree of success, are features that have been advertised quite extensively, but the plant life which is both varied and distinctive has received comparatively little attention, As the bay is, in reality, a remnant of a larger body of water much of the adjacent land is composed of sand, shells and other beach deposits. Throughout a very large territory a sheet of salt water can be found about on a level with the surface of the bay. Fresh water cannot be had from wells and while plants grow well during wet weather a period of drouth is very destructive. As the Nueces river empties into the bay it is said to be only semi-salt, but because of extra evaporation it is practically ocean water. The Nueces, being a very slow- running stream, brings a great volume of such forms of sedi- ment as can be held in solution, and as the water for several miles above the mouth is even more quiet than that of the bay, this sediment slowly settles and forms a thick black ooze that can be readily raised to the higher ground by high water. This 92 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST rich black soil supports a luxuriant growth of trees, tangled vines and weeds, The vegetation of the area fertilized by the river is typical of the Gulf Coast country and sets off in sharp lines a contrast most striking. The high ground—the land outside of the old lake basin—is covered with grease-wood, Spanish bayonets, chaparral, and various forms of cactus, We were located in a cottage built on a pier over the bay, and for a place in which to put away dull care and make faces at a Texas summer, it would be hard to duplicate. In the morning take a vasculum and ramble wherever something of special interest appears, collect some of the rare specimens, and after putting them to press, take a swim. Late in the evening, a trip would be especially enjoyable among the halophytes that were so plentiful just above high water line. Many kinds of sea-weeds are washed in by the waves and a small bunch is usually swarming with various forms of animal life—mini- ature crabs, lobsters, shrimp, clams and sponges. Some of these marine plants are very beautiful in form as well as color and texture. There are algae of various shades of red and blue and green, but a very common brown variety forms a rich sepia that blends with the more striking colors to make an artistic border. The long kelps are mostly under water so that when the bay is calm they appear as a submerged field of culti- vated plants. Possibly the salt cedar is the most striking tree. Calm, dignified, and aristocratic, it appears as a patriarch of all the trees and shrubs of the locality. Its gnarled trunk draped with a graceful fringe of delicately shaded green, the friendly trailing branches festoon a canopy just thick enough to make the shade complete without interfering with the circulation of the air. The sublime dignity and poetry of the surroundings add a rare zest to a lunch in the salt cedar gardens. Of the other cultivated plants that might be mentioned, the elite oleanders—red, white, scarlet and yellow—which grow so THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 93 abundantly and give color to the landscape, Then there are the palms—tall spires with large umbrellas formed of spread- ing fans or gracefully bending feathers. The sea ox-eye (Borrichia frutescens) which grows along the margin of the bay is very interesting because it defies the hot sun and raises its head even when the beach is like molten brass. An excellent instance of adaptation is this low fleshy- leaved halophyte. Occasionally a bunch of alkali grass (Distichlis maritima) may form a hiding place for the little swift lizards while sea oats (Uniola paniculata) grows with less pretense but with a persistance that meets the conditions. Farther back the scalp lock (Euthammia graminifolia) flaunts its cylindric heads. In order that they may not be without all the symbols around which are grouped some beautiful and playful superstitions, the matrimony vine (Lyciwm) has a rep- resentative that compares favorably to some of the forms that have been so carefully cultivated for more than a century. In the vast areas which might appropriately be termed the median shelves of the ancient salt water basin, it seems that every plant has spines. Here may be found various forms of prickley pear, Indian fig, pin cushion, Mexican beads, lady fingers and medicine bottles, besides dwarfed yuccas, sword cactus and many other cacti, but the thorny chaparral, cats’ claws, mesquite and huisache are silent emblems of the prin- ciple of preparedness. Possibly the most formidable of the shrub-like cactus is the thorn bud (Opuntia leptocaulis) whose varying forms and lengths of sharp brittle spines stand like a phalanx against intruders, large or small, The little Mexican beads (Mimosa pallida) displays varying shades of green that are always restful to the eyes, and a vast hoard of little butter- flies such as the lyside (Kricongonia lyside), the phaon (Phycodes phaon) and the southern snout butterfly (Libythea carinenta) are continually darting among them with a calm disregard for the thorns. The fruit of the Mexican beads are gathered by the Mexican children and strung on threads. 94 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST A large field of these low growing semi-desert plants is by no means an unpleasant sight. There are varying shades of green, from extremely light to extra dark, that blend admir- ably when surveyed from a distance so as to form something of a cloud effect. Just enough life in the form of birds, butter- flies, and dragon flies is in evidence to form a fringe and break the set background of a rather quiet landscape. No artist could paint the delicate shades and tints as they merge into a deep blue sky or a long stretch of dusty road. WEIGHT OF OUR NATIVE WOODS ee ATTEMPTING to estimate the weight of a piece of wood, we are often deceived by its appearance. In gen- eral hardness is associated with weight, but this is not always a safe guide. Though the wood itself may be hard, the pres- ence of numerous large ducts, through which the water travelled when the tree was alive, may have a considerable effect in lessening the weight of the specimen. It is stated that the weight of pure wood fiber is the same for all kinds of wood, but the pore space and the amount of moisture the wood con- tains accounts for the difference between various species. In a bulletin on the “Qualities aad Uses of the Woods of Ohio” Professor William Lazenby gives a list of their weights newly determined whch we reproduce here through the courtesy of the Ohio Biological Survey. It is likely that the list contains some surprises for those who do not come much into contact with plants after they are worked up into lumber. One might expect, for instance, that the black walnut would be heavier than the elm and would scarcely regard the locust as heavier than either. The woods in the list are arranged in the order of their weight. The specific gravity given is only another way of stating the weight since it indicates how much a given THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 95 specimen weighs in comparison with an equal bulk of water. Anything with a specific gravity less than 1.00 will of course, float on water. None of our woods are heavy enough to sink in water, but several tropical species are said to do so, | Weight Specific Ciephts Gravity. Arbor Vitae (Thuja occidentalis) ..........22.28 324 Gaialpa, (Catalpa, speciosa). see. as 32-1 2172 347 Balsam Poplar (Populus balsamifera) ......21.99 352 Black Willow (Salix nigra) ......... Som noe 22.86 366 Ohio Buckeye (Aesculus glabra) ........... 23.43 375 Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis) ............. 23.77 380 Basswood (Tilia Americana) ..............- 24.00 384 White Pine (Pinus strobus)) .....--.--..... -24.02 385 Box Elder (Acer negundo) .........-seee0e- 25.15 402 Cucumber tree (Magnolia acuminata) ...... 26.63 .416 Red Mulberry (Morus rubra) .............- 26.57 425 Butternut (Juglans cinere@)...........-...>- 26.57 425 Large-toothed Aspen (Populus grandidentata) 26.57 425 Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) ............27.15 433 Chestnut (Castanea dentata) ..............- 28.28 452 Red Cedar (Juniperus Virginiana) .......... 28.28 452 Red& Elm €Ulmus fale) negate c-cuennc von: 30.86 494 Sassafras (Sassafras variifolium) ..........- 31.13 498 Buttonwood (Platanus occidentalis) ........ 31.13 498 Black Ash (Fraximus nigra) .......+2..-+.-- 32.27 516 Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) .............. 32.92 2d Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) ........ 32.96 528 Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) ...... 33.76 540 Blue Ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata) ........ 34.00 544 Jersey Pine (Pinus Virginiana) ...........- 34.29 549 Red Maple (Acer rubrum) ........--s00000- 35.36 566 Black Cherry (Prunus Virginiana) ......... 35.82 573 Bitches eines Ceziss7-vedd ene ie rie teraier= ere 35.82 573 Tamarack. (Lari larici@) serene eee ee eee 35.82 573 Red ‘Oak (Quercus ,ubra)) wee eee ess ee aa - 35.93 575 Yellow Birch (Betula lutea)" 5.0. Barns. N September 9, 1915, I had a spare hour before taking train to Cheyenne, and wandered into the east suburbs of Denver for a chance shot at the flora, as it was my first visit to Colorado. I there picked up a Kochia, which has remained undesignated in my chronological note book as No. 3640. I had previously made but one collection of Kochia scoparia, an escape from gardens, and saw that this was too different to be called that species. In October I collected the same thing at Naponee, Franklin County, Nebraska, and held it also in suspense as No. 3687. Since then I have made several collections of K. scoparia hoping for more light. 52 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST On October 2, 1917, I found the same plant again in abundance in vacant lots and by neglected walks in Hastings, Nebraska, (No. 6607) not far from the Burlington Road,— that is, within three blocks. The Naponee collection, made on the railroad banks, is the best developed, having membranous calyx wings 2 mm. long without a trace of angularity or thickening. I therefore name the plant KO CEMA TAL AIZAT NSE The species may be described thus: Annual, spreading, not at all upright as is K. scoparia, obscurely pyramidal, stouter ;.stem puberulent; leaves much as in scoparia, strigose- pubescent on the underside, not pilose with long hairs on the margin as in my specimens of scoparia; inflorescence dense, giving a heavy appearance, branches with inflorescence some- times longer than the plant is high, not at all reduced at matur- ity of seed, lightly to densely lanate with white or brownish hairs. Calyx developed into membranous wings 1 to 2 mm. long, dirty white, heavily veined, more or less erose-dentate, obovate, distinct. If the habit of this plant was like that of K. scoparia, I would not think of calling it a new species. I have taken the Hastings plant as the type because it is established there be- yond doubt and is easy of access. I shall study it further this season. Specimens have been deposited in the University of Nebraska, University of Wyoming, in New York Botanical Garden, and will be sent to Washington at once. The name, however, has not been attached to the plant until the present. HERBS WITH JUICY FRUITS ELOW are given the names of 12 herbaceous plants with fleshy fruits, which may be added to the list given in the February number of the Botanist. Notice the prevalence of red. This is probably due to “natural selection”, red being more conspicuous and hence more likely to attract the atten- tion of birds than the other colors named.—E. F. Andrews, Rome, Georgia. Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), bright red. Dragon root (Arisaema dracontium), bright red. Red baneberry (Actaea rubra), red. White baneberry (Actaea alba), white. Umbrella leaf (Diphylleia cymosa), blue. Indian strawberry (Duchesnea Indica), bright red. Maypop (Passiflora incarnata), greenish yellow. Maypop (Passiflora lutea), dark purple. Egg plant (Solanum Melogena), dark purple. Watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris), green. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus), yellow. Gherkin (Cucumis Angeria), yellow. The following list of herbs with juicy fruits has been con- tributed by Mrs. M. E. Soth, Blackfoot, Idaho. Queencup (Clintonia uniflora), blue-black. Twisted stalk (Streptopus amplexifolius), red. Twisted stalk (Disporum trachycarpum), red. False Solomon’s seal (Smulicina amplexicaulis), reddish. Strawberry blite (Chenopodium blitum), red. 54 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST Ground cherry (Physalis). All the species of Physalis have fleshy fruits notably «rocarpa, Philadelphica, longifolia, lanceolata, pumila, rotundata, and Fendlert. Japanese umbrella (Qunicula lobata), greenish. Ground saracha (Chamaesaracha coronopus), green. Wild potato (Solanum Jamesi), green. Wild tomato (Solanum elaeagmfolium), black. Wild pumpkin (Cucurbita foetidissima), yellow. Musk root (Adoxa moschatellina), green. MAPLE SUGAR HILE there are a number of species of maple tree whose sap is rich in saccharine material, the produc- tion of maple syrup and sugar has been confined almost ex- clusively to the sugar maple tree (Acer saccharum), also known as the rock or hard maple. The early settlers either boxed the tree or cut large slanting slashes from the lower end of which rudely fashioned spouts conducted the sap to a bucket. This method was very destructive ‘to the trees and boring was substituted for it. The trees should not be tapped until they are about 30 years old, as they will then withstand boring much better. The trunks are tapped on the south or south-east side along which sap first rises in spring. It is said that the largest flow can be obtained on the side bearing the most branches or over the largest root. The richest sap is found nearest the bark, the shallow borings supplying the whitest sugar. The first tapping is made breast high and each year the hole is made lower down, although this rule 1s not necessarily adhered to. The hole made is about three-eighths of an inch across, It slants slightly upward and a metallic spout is driven into it to which a bucket is attached. The old style was to have a THE AMERICAN BOTANIST OX or wooden spout with a nail driven in the tree beneath it to hold the bucket, but the nail will rust and contaminate the sap. The holes are usually not more than two inches in depth as the sap rises inside the bark through the outer ducts. If not more than one or two shallow holes are made each year the trees do not seem to be seriously damaged. Prof. C. S. Sargent mentions in his “Sylva of North America” a tree which was known to have yielded sugar every year for a century. The season for maple sugar gathering varies with the weather. It starts when the sap commences to run in spring, and, while the season in the “sugar bush” lasts about four weeks, there are usually only from ten to fourteen good sap days. The best weather is when the temperature falls to about fifteen degrees at night and rises to fifty during the day. Bright, warm, still days and frosty nights induce the largest flow of sap. Trees differ greatly in the amount of sap produced. In favorable weather an average tree will yield two to three gal- lous in twenty-four hours and during a good season give about twenty-five gallons of sap. It is stated that trees standing on high ground, on uneven rocky land or.on hillsides are the best producers. The sap from different trees varies in quality and quantity and contains on the average 3% of sugar. Four gallons of sap are required to produce a pound of sugar and thirty-five gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. In large camps the old method of bringing in the sap in buckets, evaporating the surplus water in a large kettle hung over a wood fire in the open, has been greatly improved. Metal pails with covers are now made which are hung on metallic spouts. A sleigh on which is a large tub lined with white metal goes from tree to tree and the buckets are emptied and replaced. At the sugar house there is a large tank with a strainer into which the sap is dumped. The evaporator pans in which the sap is now placed are six inches deep, thirty to 56 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST forty inches wide, and eight to eighteen feet long. Flues un- derneath lead from the firebox to the chimney. At intervals of from eight to twelve inches, partitions are placed in the pans and open at alternate ends. The sap running in from the tank flows backward and forward across the tank around the ends of the partitions until it reaches the outlet at the finishing end where it is reduced to the required density.—From an article in Forest Leaves. ADDITIONAL USEFUL WILD PLANTS IBES AUREUM, of the older books, now Ribes odora- tum, is extremely useful in Nebraska for jellies and sauces. Prunus melanocarpa, a first cousin of the choke-cherry of the East, is good raw and cooked any way when quite ripe. Prunus Besseyt, the western substitute for P. pumila, is large and juicy, especially when sheltered by blowing sand so that it ripens under cover. Lathyrus ornatus ig used, pod and all, like green peas. . Astragalus crassicarpus, ground plum, has been used when very young by explorers like Lewis and Clark to keep off scurvy, Lycopus communis and allied species are made into tea to break up a cold in the absence of a physician. It contains a stimulant much like quinine. Asclepias speciosa, exactly like A. syriaca, is the best of all wild greens when used young enough, that is like asparagus sprouts. As long as the stem will snap when bent it is good, young leaves and all. But beware of its imitation, Apocynum. In their early stages they look much alike-—J. M. Bates, Red Cloud, Nebraska. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST -~t or In your list of food-producing plants, I believe every Westerner would want to see the name of Lomatium cous locally known as “biscuit-root”’, at one time extensively col- lected by the Indians as a winter food. L. farinosum and circumdatum were probably often used along with the above, as their tubers have the same agreeable nutty flavor. The roots of Carum Gairdneri are said by Piper (Flora of \Wash. 426) to “have a sweet nutty flavor and were form- erly much used for food by the Indians”, though I have not personally confirmed this. The use of Aesculus Pavia for stupefying fish suggests that the Western Indians made extensive use of Eremocarpus Setigerus in the same way, pounding it when fresh and throw- ing it in the streams. This would give the family Euphor- biaceae a representative in your list—James C. Nelson, Salem, Oregon. NEW SPECIES STILL ABOUND UCH of the earth has yet to be explored for the forms of life. There are fertile regions yet untouched. One collection in Papua yielded some 1,100 new orchids. Re- markable collections of novelties continue to come to herbaria, many of them from regions not very remote. Not nearly all the plants of the globe are known. The systematist must con- tinually be better trained, for he has the task of understanding the older accumulations as well as adjudging the new. He makes increasing contributions to plant geography and dis- tribution and gives us an enlarged judgment on the character of the countries of the earth as indicated by their vegetation. In fact, we never understand a country before we know its plant life. Yet it is in the old regions as well as the new that novelties still come to the hand of the systematist. Every edition of the 58 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST manuals of the plants of the northeastern United States, for example, contains large additions: These acquisitions are in some part the result of new introductions, running wild; in an important part, the discovery of species hitherto overlooked; in large part, also, the results of redefinition, known as the “splitting” of species. This splitting is not alone the result of a desire to “make new species,’ but is the operation of a new psychology. In everything we are rapidly becoming particularists. In the time of Gray we studied plants as aggregates, trying to make them match something else; now we study them as segre- gates, trying to make them differ from everything else. This diversity in process accounts for the extension of Oenothera, Carex, Rubus, Malus and Crataegus. Whatever may be said of the relative ranks of the newly described species, we should thereby nevertheless understand the forms better than hereto- fore and refine both our discrimination and our definition. Probably we do not yet really understand any one of the more representative genera of plants of the northeastern United States. In making these remarks | am not commending the prac- tice of those who would divide and redivide minutely and who would carry descriptive botany to such a point of refinement that only the close specialists can know the forms. Under such circumstances, systematic work defeats its own ends.—From an Article by L. H. Bailey in Science. A WOODEN FLOWER LTHOUGH the subject of our illustration has a super- ficial resemblance to a flower, it is likely that every- body is aware that such a thing as a real wooden flower does not exist. This fact, however, has not prevented the news- paper scientist from spinning most horrendous yarns about it. It is reported to grow “in crevasses on the side of Mt. 60 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST Agua and around the edges of the huge volcano of Fuego in Guatamala.” On this account it is sometimes known as the “rose of hell”, but from such information as we can gather, we infer that a wooden flower would be quite evanescent in the region for which it was named. Some years ago, the Ladies Home Journal had an account of this form from which we quote as follows: “This unique blossom is rough but beautiful and odd and wonderful in many respects. It is composed of four distinct petals, concave in form and arranged like the petals of a half-blown rose. The outside of these petals or divisions is covered with thick bark like an ordinary tree. Inside the hard surface is indented with lines that follow each other in the most delicate tracery like the veins in the petals of some flowers. The flower measures about twelve inches across and is borne in a light strong stem of solid wood about a foot long, covered with heavy bark. Stem and flower are dark brown in color and grow on trees Of large size; As a matter of fact, the specimen is a gall similar to the galls so common on our oaks and other plants and like them due to the attacks of either insects or fungi. It appears to be fairly common in Guatamala, and according to a correspond- ent, may be purchased for a few cents in the streets of Guatamala City. The specimens are brought in by the Indians from the mountainous country not far distant. There is a picture of the wooden flower in Engler & Prantl’s “Natur- lische Pflanzenfamilien” (III. 1. p. 161, fig. 10713). Accord- ing to Engler the “wooden rose” is caused neither by insect nor fungus but is due to another parasite, belonging to the mistletoes (Phoradendron). The illustration herewith was originally published in The Guide to Nature and was kindly loaned by that publication for reproduction here. If any of our readers can add anything further to this account, we shall be glad to publish it. OILS, RESINS AND RUBBERS IS these days of shortage in nearly everything that civilized man regards as essential, a list of the principal oils, resins and gums of the world should be of interest. In the Kew Bulletin for 1917, Nos. 7 and 8, such a list is given and this, with various additions, is published here. The oils of the world divide naturally into the fatty or fixed oils, which are heavy and slow to dry, and the essential oils which are aromatic and volatile. The fixed oils are mostly derived from the seeds or fruits of various species, but the essential oils are more often derived from the leaves, stems and flowers. The fixed oils have a multitude of uses. They form the basis of much of the soap, lubricants and candles manufactured, are used extensively in painting, are often a source of food, or valued as fuel, or employed in various arts. The chief uses of the essential oils are found in perfumery and medicine. Fixed oils come largely from species inhabiting the warmer parts of the earth; the essential oils are found in species that inhabit temperate regions. The gums, resins and rubbers are peculiar in being derived principally from a sort of milky juice or latex found in certain plants and regarded by many botanists as being in the nature of an excretion or waste product. PAT DY ORME PEED VOLES. Cocos nucifera. Coconut Or. Obtained from the seeds. The dried meat containing the oil is known as copra. Oil used in cooking, ete. Tropical. Elacis Guineensis. AFRICAN PaLM Ot1L. Obtained from the seeds. Western Africa. 62 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST Attalea Cohune. AMERICAN PALM OIL. Obtained from the seeds. Honduras. Olea Europea. OtutvE Ort. Obtained from the fruits. Used in cooking and in the arts. Southern Europe. Ricimus communis. Castor Orn, Oil pressed from the seeds. Used in medicine and for burning, lubricating, etc. India, Italy, United States. Linum usatitissimum. LINSEED OIL. Obtained from the seeds. Used in painting, etc. Widely distributed in the cooler parts of the world. Glycine hispida. Soy BEAN Or. Obtained from the seeds. The oil is used in soap making. China, Japan. Zea Mays. Corn O1L. From the seeds. Used in cook- ing and in the arts. United States. Theobroma cacao. Coca Butter. From the seeds. Used im the ants. “Tropics: Gossypium spp. CoTToN SEED Ort. Oil obtained from the seeds. Used in cooking and in the arts. Warmer parts of both Hemispheres. Brassica napus. RAPE SEED OL. Oil extracted from the seeds. Used in the arts. Japan, China and Central Europe. Arachis hypogaea. PEANUT O1L. Extracted from the seeds. Used in cooking, butter making and in the arts. Tropics. Sesamum Indicum. SESAMUM OIL, GINGELLY OIL, Stu Sim Ort. Obtained from the seeds. Used as a substitute for olive oil and in soap making. India, Asia Minor, Abys- sinia, Sudan. Helianthus annuus. SUNFLOWER SEED Or. The seed is nearly half oil. Used in the arts. China, India, Russia and British East Africa. THE AMERICAN: BOTANIST 63 Balanites Maughamu. Manpuro Ott. Nut contains nearly 60% of oil. Used for burning and soap making. Port- ugese, East Africa. Balanites Aegyptiaca. Brtu Ott. Extracted from the kernels. Resembles cotton seed oil. Used for soap making. Nigeria, Sudan, and Uganda. Moquilea sp. OttTici1A SEED OIL. Seeds contain 64% of oil. South America. Trichilia emetica. MaArura Ort. Seeds contain 60% of oil. Used in cooking, soap making and for candles. East Africa. Guizotia Abyssinica. NIGER SEED OIL, INGA or RAMTIL SEED O1L. Extracted from the seeds. Used in soap making, as a condiment, as a substitute for linseed oil, and for burning. Tropical Africa. Pentadesmma butyracea. OxKoto Nut O1L, Koma Nut OiLt. The kernels contain an edible oil. West Africa. Aleurites spp. CHINESE Woop O1L, TuNG Om Ex- tracted from the wood. Used in paints and varnishes. China. Buytrospermum Parku. Emit Ort, SHEA BuTTer. Oil from the seeds. Used for soaps and candle making, and as a food. West Africa. Calophyllum inophyllum, Dito SEEp Oru. India. Papaver somniferum. Poppy SrEp Orv. Used in paint- ing and in-the arts. Asia Minor, Persia, India. Camellia Thea. TEA SEED Otv. India. Argama siderozylon. ARGAN OIL. India. Vigna Sinensis. Cow PEA Ort. China. (To be Continued. ) Reema aes ao