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THE AMERICAN BOTANIST

DEVOTED TO ECONOMIC
AND ECOLOGICAL BOTANY

EDITED BY WILLARD N. CLUTE

ya

Volume VIII

BINGHAMTON, N. Y.
WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO.
1905

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2015

https://archive.org/details/americanbotanist8190unse

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CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES

Botanists, Rabbits and Potato Beetles as, Maria L. Owen 71
Botany for Beginners ...... Willard N. Clute 11, 69, 86,-106
Miemaris, he Common s......<... Willard N. Clute 21
BeresronArden,. | Hew eos is bole. s, Willard N. Clute i
meupeed Gentian Notessa. 2s 6 bela: J. Ford Sempers 30
aceon, My Soring (5 5.,0.e05% 5. Dr. W.W. Bailey = 22
Greenish Fringed Rein Orchid .. Walter Albion Squires 29
etemmmer. OF SPTine =o. se. Ss. a Emma FE. Laughlin 6
Horsetails and Club Mosses of Wellington County, On-

EPO avo So 9 ea ae A.B. Klugh 4
MeOOSeSHIIeS. VW astOUS @ f..cb ee ev oo Dr.W.W. Batley 67
Meine Blessoms. A. Few . >.<... Jessie Swift Martin 7
MliiaPees NMI: os Loy ook lag Dr. W. W, Bailey 108
Northern flowers, The Colors of ..... John H. Lovell 41
Oak Trees near Chicago, Study of, Mary Lee Van Hook 62
Our Summers Diversions ...... 2.6 s. H, A. Shirley 64
Rad PUR e! Se cen gb, Willard N. Clute 101
Pea-flowers in Summer ........... Dr.W. W. Bailey 81
ot. Llerbs, Some Familiar, . 202... Willard N. Clute 3
ESM OR SP Fie oie ew noe ces Frank Dobbin 51
Spring Blossoms, The Earliest.. Walter Albion Smures 47

erties Of ife ns oy ey sen ba Dr WV Batley 49
eer ersancy.- PO ener Pats he ae > Ge. SReeis BG
Peeee@otudies 6.0.29. e.% shake. Dr. W. W. Batley 9
PeM INOW 2. ofc Lc pc te se Mrs-C. Ey Pease- * 90

. REPRINTED ARTICLES.
SoM Ore tee ee yc ee ee ee eee 72
OS Giig@ieed peo) 0 ele Sore eae ee 91
Peniaicas Wy alkimiee meni ler 2: et pce ee, 14
“Tiga (EIGN ae °0 = o) S nr ia Be
te Aer ee Cee i es i oe he 32
Necanies, Plants witht ta-floral <<)... 108
Serene ee ces, ce eee Cent, ee a ON. A 111
moundleaved Matdenhair, fie. <0... ee... on ee 88
"EL, oe ie eS 2 d2) 33,08, 19, 98; 1-18

BOOK eA Navy RITHERS: fo ee ok. Rei: 38 THA 1 29

NOTE AND COMMENT.

Azalea. The Pink
Bacteria. Nitrogen-fixing
Bee Plant for Sterile Soils, A 114
Botanical Magazine. The Oldest 35
Chrysanthemum Smoking ..... 115
Cleistogamous Flowers
Color and Insects
Color Changes in Flowers ....116

Color: Correlatich sor pices 115
Color of Flowers. Locality ana
THUR ccd cls Bara ape Been 95
Common Names and Genera ... 76
Common Names, Locality and. 95
Elementary Species ........... 97
Ferns tor Ogchids... ste oes 117
Fernworts as Weeds .......... 94

Flowers, Attract Insects, How.. 57 ©

Flowers, Changes of color-in..116
Flowers, The Markings of....115
Flowers -“Wilting ioe -4 eeese 95
Genera, Common Names and. 76

Golden “Seal: . 5) aan les eet eeda he 36

PabeEnatile ce Se oT. sate ah 36

Honey, Poisonous, From Poyp-
PIES hiss ce ee ee ght7

Horse Gentian, Scarlet Fruited 56
Hound’s-tongue, Odor of ....116
indian: Lurnip; Sekine a. Sea

Jack-in-the-pulpit, Triple
Tob’s:-T ars: 4 s223 en ee 36
Marsh Plants in Dry Places.. 76
Nomenclature That Stable... 35
Odor of Hound’s-tongue......116
Passion Flower, Medicinal.... 34
Pedicularis Species Wanited.. 93

Pine, Seed Dispersal in ...... 17
Plant: Protection’... :4.2 see 55
Plants of the Northwest ...... 93

Plants With Nodding Tips.:. 77
Pollination of the Primrose.... 17

Polypedium. Fiber o.44aoeeee 497%
Poppies, Poisonous Honey
Prom, | ware new st aa 117

Primrose, Pollination of the.. 17

Red. Flower;> California. 26 37
Rhododendrons, Extermina-
tion of S.No 94

Seed Dispersal in the Pine.... 17
Soil, Relation of the Plant to

the> .5 (atid C5 Be aie gee 94
Teas: Various. 225k st. cae 96
L onka “Bean, . Thea). sakes 34
Violets," Midwinter.) =: =o a2 = ae > ae.
Weeds, Fernworts as ......01. 94
Wildflowers, Money in ....... 37

voL.s. JANUARY, 1905. No. 1.

THEAMERICAN|
|| BOTANIST.

CONTENTS.

10 THE FOREST OF ARDEN,’ ~~ -- - x
| 3 WiLLarD N. CLUTE.
CENTS THE HORSETAILS AND CLUB-MOSSES
é . OF WELLINGTON COUNTY,
A ONTARIO, - - - . - - ow
A. B, KiLuGH.
HARBINGER OF SPRING, - . - - 6
COPY Emma E. LAvGHIIN.
A FEW MAINE BLOSSOMS, - aed se ae Foe
$1.00 Jessic Swirt Martin,
WINTER STUDIES, - . > . - 9
A Dr. W1LLIAM WRITMAN. BAILEY.
: BOTANY FOR REGINNERS—XVIII, - 11
YEAR. THE JAMAICA WALKING FERN, - <= 14
| NOTE AND COMMENT, : - - £7
LG! 1S RRO Seen reea oorgg eaees 18

ROOKS AND WRITERS

BINGHAMTON, N. Y.
WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO.

THE RAMERIGAN BOTANIST -

A MONTHLY JOURNAL FOR THE PLANT LOVER.
Issued On the 15th of Each. Month.
WILLARD N. CLUTE, mee, = - EDITOR.

SPECIAL NOTICE.

Two volumes of this magazine are issued each year. Subscriptions 60 cents a

volume or $1.00 a year. All subscriptions must begin with a volume. This maga-

zine is sent to all subscribers until ordered discontinued and all arrearages paid.

Subscribers may pay each year when most convenient. All subscriptions more than

@ year in-arrears will be collected by law. The publication is sent free to no one
except by special arrangement.

WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., Publishers, Binghamton, N. Y.
Entered at the Post Office at Binghamton, N. Y., as Second Class matter, Aug. 22, 1901.

BotANIcAL DRAUGHTSMAN

Biological drawing da specialty. Illustrations made
for effective and truthful reproduction, |

OOS OO OSD OD! @ 0D DOO! OD CO <1! OS <3 S O

Books Recommended

In this department we shall, from time to time, recom-
mend books that to us seem of special value to readers of
this journal.

Ili1.—Fern Books.

;
It all depends upon what you want the book for. Ifa technical manual with :
descriptions of the North American species, get Underwood's ‘‘Our Native Ferns’’ 8
($1.08); if a popular handbook for Eastern America select either Parson’s ‘‘How 7
to Know the Ferns’’ ($1.63), Water's ‘‘Ferns’’ ($3.34) or Clute’s ‘Our Ferns in
Their Haunts" ($2.15). Parson’s book is well written but the keys are difficult,
Water’s book has two technical keys and is illustrated with»many photographs,
Clute's book has more text than either, has illustrated keys, colored plates and the
225 other illustrations are by an artist of ability. The real fern lover needs all $
three. Eastman's ‘‘New England Ferns’’ ($1.25) is a new book that is useful but é
not so comprehemsive as the others, while Dodge’s ‘‘Ferns and Fern Allies of
New England’’ (50.cts.) is a complete little technical mannal. Clute’s ‘‘Fern 6
Collector’s Guide’’ (50 cts.) tells where to find ferns and how to press, mount and 6
identify them, Useful to take into the field. 4
4
B

For the above books, or any others, address,

_ WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., Binghamton, N. Y.

POO DP DOS BOS BSG S VO D168 D1 Vt]
‘ CHARLES DD. PENODOELL, PRINTER, BINGHAMTON, N.Y.

> DB > <D + OP «D) O- <B> <P Ds SS DO <P SS 0

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7

TNE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

Vout. VIII. BINGHAMTON, N. Y., JANUARY, 1905. Nod:

THE FOREST OF ARDEN.
BY WILLARD N. CLUTE.

T will doubtless be a surprise to many to learn that
probably the largest botanical garden in North
America is located in the Middle West near Joliet, Illinois,
and bears the poetic title of The Forest of Arden. No-
where else, so far as Iam aware, is there eight hundred
acres of woodland and meadow in one piece given over
to the cuitivation and display of our native trees, shrubs
and herbs, nor one in which the purely natural features
are given greater importance. The Forest boasts of
neither conservatories nor museums and derives its value
solely from the display of plants that will endure the
climate. Thanks to the activity of those in charge, the
number of such plants in the Forest is rapidly increasing
and will in time include everything that can be made
to grow there.

Unlike other botanical gardens, The Forest of Arden
is nota public institution though it is as freely open to
the plant-loving public as if it were. It is part of the
estate of Mr. H. N. Higginbotham, a Chicago millionaire,
and its beginning is both curious and interesting. In
Mr. Ele otain’ s youth long before the itd. came
into his possession, he had fished in its waters, hunted in
its woodlands and rambled over the surrounding country-
side. It was but natural, therefore, when Eo meine smiled
upon him that he should turn again to the pleasant
scenes of his boyhood, and locate his ccuntry home
amidst them. The house is called Harlowarden and the
wood was named the Forest of Arden possibly in remem-

2 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

brance of that other Forest of Arden and in the hope
that here, too, might one

‘Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks

Sermons in stones and good in everything.”

In the Forest of Arden proper there are three hundred
acres and in the adjoining woodland, also preserved, and
commonly known as “‘the East Woods”’ there are five
hundred acres more. Only part of this area is heavily
timbered, there being numerous forest glades which
permit the growth of many shrubs and herbs that delight
in partial sunshine. Through the park Hickory Creek
winds its way in a valley some two hundred feet wide
and being dammed in two places forms long stretches
of quiet water that afford opportunities for most effective
planting. In its course it. is joined by Francis Creek
along which grow many water-loving plants.

The alluvial plain through which the main stream
flows supports a fine growth of maple mostly of the
Acer nigrum form, there being more than two thousand
trees of good size. North of this belt 1s apparently an
older and abandoned creek bed now become a swampy
area grown up to ashes, willows, dogwoods and other
shrubs which here and there give place to thickets of
cat-tails, sedges and other swamp vegetation. From
this the land rises to an elevation of about one hundred
feet above the creek, being cut by several small ravines
and covered with a dense second growth of oaks. The
largest ravine is nearly two thousand feet long and
shelters many shade-loving plants. Some of the finest
views in the park are found here. The more open slopes
give a home to an immense number of hawthorns, hazels,
wild crabs, ete. The hawthorns are noted for the abund-
ant forms displayed. One of these has been named
Crategus arduenge by Dr. Sargent in honor of the park.

The first survey of the Forest of Arden was made
in 1898 under the direction of O. C. Simonds. At first
it was apparently intended only as a preserved woodland
bat with the advent in 1900 of the present Forester and

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. Ee

Botanist Mr. H. C. Skeels, a graduate of the Michigan
Agricultural College, a botanical interest began to be
added to the park. Recognizing that a great variety
of plants would add both interest and value to the
forest, with characteristic energy he set to work to
obtain them and already has under cultivation upwards
of a thousand species. These have been planted along
the five miles of drives in the park according to the
natural relationships of the plants, as outlined by Engler
and Prantl. In this effort Mr. Skeels has been seconded
by Mr. Higginbotham who is himself somewhat inter-
ested in the subject of botany, and after whom the genus
Higginbothamia has been named. Nor has nature, her-
self, failed to properly endow the region. During the
spring months there are many acres in the park where it
is impossible for one to walk without crushing the
flowers at every step. Such lavish displays of spring
beauties, white and yellow adder’s-tongues, trilliums,
bloodroot, phlox, Dutchman’s breeches, anemones, cow-
slips and the like are seldom seen elsewhere. There are
five kinds of trilliums to be found in abundance in the
park and where the two species of adder’s-tongues grow
there does not seem room for another plant.

Later in the year the marvellous prairie flora makes
itself noticeable and the autumn closes with a blaze of |
asters, goldenrods, helianthemums and all the allies of
the sunflower tribe. Among the less coinmon plants
in the region may be mentioned the Kentucky coffee-tree,
the western crab (Pyrus Ioense) with fruits often two
inches in diameter, and the curious pawpaw. Of this
last there is a solid acre of trees of bearing size.

Although there is no museum inthe park, the Forester
maintains a well mounted herbarium which contains
specimens of practically all of the plants of the surround-
ing country as well as those growing inthe park. This
herbarium is constantly receiving additions and is most
valuable and satisfactory in deciding questions regarding
plants of the region. Not only are visitors welcome
at the park, but the schools near by receive a cordial

4, THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

co-operation in their studies of botany and zoology.
In botany sspecially a large amount of material for
laboratory work is annually furnished. A finely mounted
collection of the plants of the vicinity has recently been
presented to the Joliet Township High School and a
duplicate collection will be received by the Field Colum-
bian Museum of Chicago. Considered from the stand-
point of either beauty or utility there are few parks that
compare with The Forest of Arden.
Joliet, Til.

- THE HORSETAILS AND CLUB-MOSSES OF
WELLINGTON COUNTY, ONTARIO.

BY A. B. KLUGH.

HE most ubiquitous member of either of these two
families is certainly the field horsetail (Equisetum
arvense). It grows in thickets, it flourishes in swamps
and it fairly revels in a sandy field. The fertile stems
appear very early and the spores are scattered abont
May 6th. At this time the sterile shoots are only a few
inches high and but little branched; by the end of May
they have assumed the characteristic appearance which
gives them, and through them the family, the name of

« *“HMorsetatl. ’

Another species of the ‘‘non-evergreen”’ section of
the horsetail family (Equisetaceze) also puts in an early
appearance. This is the wood horsetail (Equisetum
sylvaticum) the rarest and by far the most beautiful of
the family. It only grows in one damp thicket in the
county as far as known. The spores are scattered
toward the middle of May, after which the fertile stems
branch out as much as the sterile ones.

Late in May the shoots of the swamp horsetail
(Equisetum fluviatile) came up in the bogs and shallow
water of lakes and ponds, and about June 9 the spores
are shed. At this time both fertile and sterile stems are
but little branched, and many of the sterile and most of

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 5»

the fertile are totally without branches. At the end of
June the sterile stems are widely branched. :

The stems of the common scouring Rush (Equisetum
hiemale), being evergreen, are in sight at all times of the
year. About May 23 the new shoots begin to appear.:
They make very slow growth and before any fruiting:
spikes have appeared on them some of last year’s fertile
stems have occasionally sent out slender branches from.
just below the old fruiting spike, and these are tipped:
with minute fruiting spikes. By July 3 the fruiting spikes:
begin to show from the top sheaths of the fertile stems,-
and about August 5 the spores are scattered. This:
species is an inhabitant of dry soil and is common but
not abundant.

A little plant very easy to pass over is the sedge-like
horsetail (Equisetum scirpoides). It is an evergreen
inhabitant of banks and hummocks at the base of trees.
and old stumps in swamps, and is frequent in this local-
ity. About July 16 the fruiting spikes begin to appear,.
and during August many mature and shed their spores..
The rest remain with the spores enclosed over winter.

Of the club-mosses found in Wellington County by
far the commonest, is the shining club-moss (Lycopodium
lucidulum). It is, as are all our species, an inhabitant
of hemlock woods. The spore-cases are borne in the axils
of the leaves and the spores are shed about October 15.
It has, however, another means of propagation besides
by spores, as many of the stems both fertile and sterile,
produce near the tips bud-like bodies which fall to the
ground and become new plants. |

The ground pine (Lycopodium obscurum) is rare in
this locality, only a few small patches at present being
known. The spores are shed about September 25.

The stiff club-moss (Lycopodium annotinum), while
scarce in the county, is known to exist in great abund-
ance in one hemlock woods in company with the shining
club-moss and the common club-moss. Here it forms
dense mats many yards in extent and when in fruit

6 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

presents a very handsome spectacle. The spores are
shed about October 13.

The common club-moss (Lycopodium elavatum),
whose club-like fruiting spikes give the name of club-moss
to the whole family, is by no means common here. The
spores are shed early in September.

Even when not in fruit our species of club-moss are
readily distinguished, the ground pine by its tree-like
habit, the shining club-moss by its broadish, sharp but
not long-pointed leaves, the stiff club-moss by its narrow-
er long-pointed leaves, and the common club-moss by its
bristle-tipped leaves.

Guelph, Ontario.

HARBINGER OF SPRING.
BY EMMA E. LAUGHLIN.
HERE is a dainty little wild flower, known only to
its friends and lovers, which bears the technical
name Erigenia bulbosa, or the common name Harbinger
of Spring.

Indeed it is a harbinger of spring, for it always
appears a week before the spring beauty (Claytonia
Virginica) and often a month before any other wildwood
blossom. It is the first representative of the Parsley
family of nature’s widespread brotherhood.

Some warm spring-like day in February or early
March, when you are walking in the woods, if you
already know and love this tiny white flower, you will
find it peeping out from among the dry leaves on a sunny
southern slope. Otherwise you will never see it at all.
It will not flaunt itself in your face, nor invite you to
pluck it from its stem. Cuddled down close to some
gnarled root in a sheltered nook, it will wait shyly for
you to find it. You may pass the spot a dozen times
and not see it, and the next time find it and wonder why
you did not see it at the first. You will feel like bowing
humbly before the faith of this little woodland plant that
the springtime never failed us yet.

You will see only the white of the petals and the

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. t

reddish brown of the anthers. No green leaves appear
with these first flowers. They are softly curled up
beneath the dead leaves, waiting tor a warmer time.
If you dig down around the tender white stem you will
find at the end of it a round brown tuber covered with
rootlets. By and by when the season is more advanced,
the stems lengthen, the leaves spread out, and larger
clusters of the dainty flowers open. They never get very
high in the world, for the greatest length to which they
grow is not over eight inches.

It is not long that the harbinger of spring or pepper-
and-salt, as it is often called from its brown and white
appearance, holds sway in the vernal woods. Itis soon
overshadowed by the more sturdy flowers that follow
—the hepaticas, bloodroots, buttercups and _ trilliums.
Once more, in the woods of the early summer, you will
meet this friend of the early spring. Some day in your
wanderings, you will chance upon a bank covered with
fine feathery green leaves surrounding small clusters of
curved brown seeds. At this time you will find the plant
still beautiful. When these seeds have fallen the plant’s
work is done, and it sinks drowsily into its long winter’s
rest. You have said goodbye for a year to this happy
little flower, for

“Tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.”’

Barnesville, Ohio.

A FEW MAINE BLOSSOMS.
BY JESSIE SWIFT MARTIN.

N amateur botanist in Maine has been interested
for years in noting the location of certain flowers,

and their absence from certain fields where they would
be expected. For instance, only once has it ever come
to the author’s knowledge, that meadow beauty (Rhexia
Virginica) has been found in Androscoggin County.
That instance was on the shores of Trip Pond in Poland,
where each midsummer finds the marshy pond edge
deeply pink from the blossoms. Later, as Thoreau says,

8 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

the patch is almost as bright from the scarlet leaves and
seed pods as it was in the time of flower.

In Winthrop, at the outlet of Lake Cobbosseecontee,
was found a big clump of purple loose-strife (Lythrum
salicaria) in full bloom. Consulting one better versed
in flower lore than myself, I learned that the plant has
not often been found nearer this location than Conway,
NH.

Many Maine ponds and lakes, notably Kezar Lake,
Oxford County, bear on their hosoms the beautiful sweet-
scented white water lily (Nympheza odorata). Gray
remarks that the blooms are sometimes pinkish, rarely
pink-red. Yet in Freeport is a pond where the pink-red
lily is so plenty that the lads of the town hawk them
about the streets.

The pink lady’s slipper (Cypripedium acaule) is to
be met in almost all parts of the state, very frequently
attended by several of the pure white balloon-like
blossoms which form Dr. Asa Gray counsels one always
to expect of any flower. But the yellow, the Cypriped-
ium pubescens, is much less frequently met. I never saw
it until it was brought into botany class in the high
school at Lewiston. At that time, so scatteringly were
the specimens found, that the student, who brought them
from a grove in South Lewiston, refused steadfastly to
reveal their haunt. Several of her specimens bore two
blooms at the tip of one stalk. But the showy lady’s
slipper (Cypripedium spectabile) is rarest of all, and I
know of but one locality, and that indefinitely, where
it is to be found it the State. This is near where the
town lines of Hebron and Buckfield join, and the few who
appreciate the rarity of the plant are highly indignant
that a resident there has annually uprooted and sold to
out-of-the-state parties the lovely, shy habitant of the
swampy places.

Tne one-flowered pyrola (Moneses grandiflora) has
never come to my observation in Maine save from Knox
County.

Fringed polygala (Polygala paucifolia) was one of

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. G

the commonest of the woods flowers about Lewiston and
Auburn, in Androscoggin County, but I have yet to meet
with it in the vicinity of Rumford Falls in Oxford County.

Another plant which I have met but once in Maine is
the downy false foxglove (Gerardia flava) which I saw
while on a launch exploring the shores of Lake Auburn,
Androscoggin County.

I do not say these plants cannot be found elsewhere
than in the localities I have mentioned; I simply state
that in the years I have been interested in botany I have
never been able to learn ot them elsewhere.

Rumford Falls, Me. |

nn at

WINTER STUDIES.
BY DR. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY.

| dos student of nature is never without objects of

study. Winter may narrow his horizon, but 1t does
not wholly shut himin. From his very occupation he is
an observer, and having once learned to keep his eyes
open he uses them at all times. Out of doors there is
much to see; the tracery of branches, the arrangement
and packing of buds, the drooping tassels, the persistent
berries, the rattling oak leaf that will not fall. On every
tree, too, on a damp day, we will note the green mosses.
Lift off the scale of ice, itself a wonder, from yonder pool,
and dip up some of the green floating filaments beneath.
You will, when you return home, possess a microcosm
wherein is enacted tragedy, melodrama and exquisite
comedy. And as for beauty of form, what shall surpass
these atoms which are alone revealed by the lens?

A walk in the wild woods is never without charm.
Even in the winter we find it profitable to pay them an
occasional visit. Nature never pleads the shallow and
fallacious excuse of domestic engagements, but we have a
suspicion that about this time she is not the least busy
lady in the land. Think of all the sleeping buds she has
to rock and fondle, and of all the multitudinous plans she
is maturing, to delight and surprise us in the spring!
Under the snow beds are myriads of slumbering blossoms,

10 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

not to speak of forms of higher life, which await but a
word from the gentle goddess to come forth in vernal
beauty.

We love to follow the path made by some rabbit or
other wild creature which leads into mysterious depths of
forest. The silence would be appalling were it not for the
instinctive faith in the latent life about us. In places
the snow is positively blue, where, for instance, the
‘‘sombrous pines” cast their long shadows westward and
mark the progress of the sun. Wonderful palaces have
been built above the little brook which bubbles and
whispers and laughs as it plays sweet music on the
tinkling ice. We gaze down colonnades of stately pillars,
ornate as those ot Thebes. Let Schliemann delve in the
ruins of Mycene or Layard of Nineveh; they cannot
unearth more wonderful remains.

It requires good courage, and something of enthusi-
asm besides, to travel afoot over frozen snow; but there
are days when itis quite out of the question for one to
stay at home. Blue skies, jingling sleigh-bells, and crisp
air all summon him out of doors. If he can skate he has
reached the triumph of locomotion, the poetry of earthly
movement. A perfect skater suggests those exquisite
statues of the Greeks, where a god is represented poised
as if for flight. . The anatomical absurdity of wings is
dispensed with, and he seems to glide along by the very
force of genius. There may be reason, perhaps, why we
cannot skate. At such times we wrap up well, and start
off like some Alpine or Arctic explorer, with a convenience
at hand of which these adventurers are deprived; viz:
the ready access to a returning trolley car.

Sometimes kind Nature undertakes a little dramatic
performance in our back yard, when we engage a reserved
seat in the house and witness the spectacle in comfort:
Where is the artist that can paint sucha scene? Doesa
child’s imagination even create anything so dazzling and
bewildering ? Here is a pear tree whose withered fruit is
transformed into sugared confection. For what fairy
beauty are prepared these necklaces of pearl? Who

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 11!

ground the iridescent facets of yonder diamonds that
spangle in the sunlight and, catching the subtle colors of
the spectrum, gleam like shattered rainbows? The oak
has sheathed himself in mail, and even the tiny twigs are
guantleted. A little breeze causes the armor to creak and
the joints to rattle, but the fabric is well wrought and
can endure the strain.

Beautiful beyond all description is the view adown
the garden path, when the overarching shrubs have found.
a fret-work of crystal. There are hung strings of orient
pearls; tapestry and lace-work of superb patterns recall
the splendors of mediaeval times; and here is a film or
veil of frost so delicate that a breath would endanger it.
The most homely objects are fringed with opaline icicles.
A cluster of barberries, which has escaped the birds, is
now an ear-drop of costly coral. What could the island
home of Monte Cristo show that was any way compar-
able to this splendor ?

“Loveliest of lovely things are they
On earth, that soonest pass away.”

Even as we look, the enchantment is broken. The
rare decorations are dashed upon the ground, for witha
shudder and a sigh, each branch seems to bow itself
slightly and then cast off its armor; the jewels are
dissolved in rain.

Brown University, Providence, R. I.

BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS--XVIII.

ORDER Il.—THE NAIADALES.

There are few plant families with which the collector
has less to do than with the Naiadales. Like their
nearest allies, the cat-tails and bur-reeds, they are water
and marsh plants, inconspicuous enough as to individuals,
but often occurring in such abundance as to be noticeable
for their numbers alone. The flowers, of a low and
primitive type, often without petals or other showy
organs, attract only the scientist. The average plant lover
can hardly be expected to become enthusiastic over limp,
dripping, dirty plants lacking beauty and fragrance,

ge THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

fished up from the waters of some s'’ow stream or pond,
and offering no characters by which they may be easily
identified. Nevertheless, these plants are of interest for
the link they form in the chain of plant families and are
well worth a careful study.

The Naiadales are named for the genus Naias, or
Najas as it is often written in the Old World, of which
the widely distributed Naias flexilis may be considered
the type. The order is also frequently called the Fluvi-
ales and the Helobiz, but the title we use seems the one
likely to prevail. Four families compose this group in
North America and two or three additional families are
found in other parts of the world. Those represented
with us are the Naidacez which includes the pondweeds
( Potomogeton), the Scheuchzeriacezez, the Alismacez
containing the water-plantains (Alisma) and the arrow-
heads (Sagittaria) and the Vallesneriacee best known
from the eel-grass (Vallesneria). 7

In the simplest plants of this order eae flowers consist
of single stamens and carpels. Sometimes the two are
borne in the same flower, but often each sex is borne
alone. These flowers are seen to be much reduced for
in the group asa whole the regular three-parted type of
the Monocotyledonous flower prevails. One noticeable
exception is found, however, in the pondweeds which
have four-parted flowers.

As regards the floral envelopes, the flowers of this
order fare rather better than those of the Pandanales,
for even in Naias where the flowers consist of single
stamens and carpels borne separately, the staminate
flower, at least, not only has a rudimentary sac-like
perianth but is borne in a spathe as well. Inthe Scheuch-
zeriacezee (formerly the Juncaginacez) there is a sepaloid
perianth of two whorls of three, while in the Alismacez
the flowers have a two whorled perianth, the outer green
and the inner petal-like and colored. The pondweeds
have usually been considered as having a perianth of four
petaloid segments, but these are now regarded as out-
growths from the anther. While they answer the require-
ments of petals, they are not petals or sepals in origin.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 13

In some members of the order, notably in the arrow-
heads and water-plantains there is a tendency to a
multiplication of stamens and pistils but in the majority
there is a definite number of these organs, usually six as
to stamens and three as to pistils. In many of the plants
there is also seen a tendency to surround the flower or
flowers with a spathe.

The order is remarkable for the variety and strange-
ness of ways in which the flowers are pollinated. The
showy flowers of the Alismacez are pollinated by bees
and other short-tongued insects. In Alisma plantago,
the water-plantain, according to Rendle, the fleshy ring
formed by the base of the filaments excretes twelve drops
of nectar. Inthe arrow-head (Sagittaria) the large and
showy flowers are noticeable for appearing in whorls of
three, the upper whorls containing only staminate
flowers, the lower pistillate. In the pondweeds, although
the flowers contain both pistils and stamens and are
wind pollinated, there is considerable likelihood of cross-
pollination since the stigmas ripen before the anthers.
The eel-grass is famous from the fact that its pistillate
flowers rise on long stems to the surface of the water,
while the short-stemmed staminate flowers, in order to
reach them break loose from the plant and rise to the
surface, being helped thereto by a bubble or balloon of
oxygen gas providently excreted before the journey
begins. Still other members of the order have flowers
always beneath the water and the pollen instead of being
round, as is usual, is long and thread-like and of the same
specific gravity as water. It, therefore, neither rises to
the surface nor sinks to the bottom, but swims about
until caught upon the fringed stigmas. The seeds are
usually, if not always, distributed by water.

In addition to seeds many plants of this order have
other methods of distribution. Runners which form
tuber-like bodies capable of producing new plants are
common in the eel-grass, the pondweeds and the arrow-
heads. In the former the tips of the shoots in autumn
becomes detached and sink to the bottom to give rise to

14 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

new plants in spring. In the frog-bit (Hydrocharis) the
runners produce rosettes somewhat after the manner of
the strawberry, and the plant also forms resting buds in
autumn. Our common ditch-moss (Elodea canadensis) 1s
rapidly propagated by off-shoots and though seldom
fruiting has become a great pest abroad through its
rapid multiplication. Indeed, it is said that the pistillate
plant, only, has gone abroad. These extra means of
propagation seem essential to water plants whose more
complicated methods of reproduction are often mterfered
with by varying heights of the water.

The order is represented in both fresh and salt water
and in both warm and temperate climates. It is notice-
able, however, that certain families show a preference for
one or the other of these conditions. Thus the pond-
weeds are found only in fresh water while the species of
Ruppia and Zostera are found in salt or brackish waters.
There are about a hundred species of Naiadacez of which
nearly three-fourths are pondweeds. The Scheuchzeria-
ceze are a small family with less than a dozen species.
Alismaceze has about seventy-five species, nearly half of
which belong to Sagittaria. The Vallisneriacee (known
also as the Hydrocharitacez) has about forty species
many of them tropical.

THE JAMAICA WALKING FERN.

(Fadyenia prolifera.)

Walking ferns, in the sense of ferns whose fronds bend
over and take root at the tip, are fairly common in the
fern world. Our own most noted example is the interest-
ing little Camptosorus rhizophyllus not uncommon on
limestone rocks, but we have several others that occa-
sionally root at the tip, such as the hartstongue (Scolo-
pendrium vulgare), the ebony spleenwort (Asplenium
ebeneum), the pinnatifid spleenwort (A. pinnatifidum)
and that curious hybrid named Asplenium ebenoides.

In the colder parts of the Old World Camptosorus
sibericus, a species much like our walking fern, is found,
but we must turn to the Tropics to find walking ferns in

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 15

abundance. In Jamaica, especially there are numerous,
species with this habit. One of the most characteristic:
is the one we have selected for illustration under the title.
of the Jamaica walking fern. Fadyenia, as it is often
called, has more claim to our attention than the mere

\ OU NAR
\ \ .

FADYENIA PROLIFERA.

fact that it is a walking fern. It is the only fern of its |
kind in the world and the entire genus Fadvenia consists
of this single species prolifera. Its fronds, too, are odd

16 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

enough to distinguish it anywhere. There are first
certain round-ended or spatulate fronds for purely vege-
tative functions, oftenest seen in young specimens;
second, there are other lanceolate tapering fronds which
do the ‘‘walking’”’ and which are manifestly later leaves
like the first form, but with prolonged, slender tips, and
lastly there are the paddle-shaped fertile fronds which are
like neither of the others. The margins of all are entire.

This species grows on springy banks in the open sun
or partial shade and in certain localities is very plentiful.
The rather thick and leathery sterile fronds spread out in
the form of a rosette and the slender tips rarely fail to
produce new plants which, in the genial climate of their
habitat, soon reach the size of their parents. The fertile
fronds are erect and their manner of fruiting, though
allied to the wood-ferns, differs enough to cause the
species to be placed in a separate genus. On each side of
the mid-rib is a single row of horse-shoe-shaped sori
pointing toward the tip, covered by oval indusia fixed
by the center and base and open all round the outer
margin. The sori have a general resemblance to those
of the wood-fern (N ephrodium) tribe, and as might be
surmised the genus is placed with them in the tribe
Aspidieze, which also includes the sword ferns (Nephrole-.
pis). The sori are unusually large and occupy most of
the space on the narrow fronds.

The tronds of the Jamaican walking fern are . ‘scarcely
longer than those of our familiar native species, but the
sterile are much broader and the plant appears much
larger in consequence. By many it is supposed to grow
only in Jamaica, but it has been reported from Cuba,
also. Jamaica, however, appears to be the only laud
where it is abundant.—Willard N. Clute, in The Fern
Bulletin.

‘un
; Note and @Comrient. a
ce

WANTED.—Short notes of interest to the general bot-
anist are always in demand for this department. Our
readers are invited to make this 'the place of publication
for their botanical items.

a aa

SEED DISPERSAL IN THE PineE.—At the time the ovules
of the pine are pollinated, the scales of the cone open
allowing the pollen to reach them. After this they are
tightly closed until the seeds are ripe when they again
open. The cause of this second opening seems to be alack
of moisture in the outer side of the scales. This side
shrinks pulling the whole scale outward. In some of the
firs the scales open and shut according as the weather is
wet or dry, thus loosing the seeds and ensuring that
they shall be scattered only on fair days.

POLLINATION OF THE PRIMROSE.—Our British cousins
are again going over the evidence for and against the
theory that the English primrose is cross-pollinated. It
seems that some inquisitive entomologist has been watch-
ing the primroses for an hour or so each day and not find-
ing many bees or other insects about, has jumped to the
conclusion that not enough bees visit the blossoms to
properly pollinate them. It would seem, however, that
until some patient investigator has watched the blossoms
through the whole twenty-four hours at various times
during the flowering season, he is scarcely warranted in
making positive statements. There are many crepuscular
or nocturnal insects like the sphynx-moths that might
transfer the polien. The sphynxes especially, aresoactive
that a single individual is able to pollinate forty or fifty
flowers a minute. A few of these insects fly by day, but
many more appear only at dusk and dawn while a few
are to be seen only in the middle of the night. He who
studies cross-pollination must be abroad at all times, ifno
facts are to escape him.

# Ei ee :

nv

The term Nature-Study is one that still lacks a
definition that will find unanimous approval. Even the
writers of books on the subject are by no means agreed
as to whatit means. Prof. L. H. Bailey says “it is not
the study of science,’ and with this dictum John Bur-
roughs agrees, but others of equal authority insist that
elementary science and nature-study are synonymous.
No matter which side of the argument we take, this
much is certain; both nature-study and elementary
science deal with the world about us, and if there is any
difference between the two, it would seem to lie in the
spirit with which we approach the subject. In the study
of elementary science, the student young or old is con-
cerned with the discovery of connected facts about the
object studied; in nature-study, if we have properly
understood the term, the desire is not so much to find
out all that is possible about a given subject as to find
out what is pleasing about it. The advocate of nature-
study would do away with all dissection and analysis
and turn attention to the beautiful, the curious and the
interesting. In the hands of an intelligent teacher, herself
an ardent naturalist, it is conceivable that good results
may come from this view of the subject; but as the
matter is at present, when any teacher with sufficient
intelligence to.teach in the lower grades of the school,
is assumed to be fully competent to teach ‘‘nature-study”’
the teaching too often runs into sentimental nonsense
that is worse for the child than no nature study at all.
Real nature-study can rarely be taught to advantage
in the school-room, for there the conditions are unnatural.
If taught at all the child’s knowledge is likely to be more
or less out of proportion because some parts of nature
are more easily studied indoors than others. For these
reasons it appears to us that if anything about nature
is to be taught in school, it should be elementary science

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 19

with as much the flavor of nature study as possible
instead of the reverse. The teaching of nature-study out
of doors is quite another matter and we think Dr. Bige-
low has in the main put forth the right ideas in his
recent little book on ‘‘How Nature-Study Should Be
Taught.’ He advises the teacher to get the child’s point
of view, to approach nature with the same wonder and
questioning. He would have no formal schedules and
would teach in a somewhat haphazard fashion letting
the objects to be studied for the most part suggest them-
selves. And he is also a believer in the theory that no
teacher can be successful in this work without being,
herself, possessed of a love of nature. Taken allin all the
book is one of the best expositions of the way to teach
nature-study that we have seen, but we hasten to add
that in our opinion the book will not do asa manual for
teaching about nature in the schools. The book is
published by Hinds, Noble and Eldredge, New York.

BOOKS AND WRITERS.

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society has recently
distributed an excellent little pamphlet on ‘‘The Protec-
tion of Native Plants’’ by Robert Tracy Jackson.

The first number of The Apteryx issued by the Roger
Williams Park Museum, of Providence, R. I., has ap-
peared and makes a verycreditable beginning. C.Abbott
Davis is editor.

Major George O. Squier has recently published an
account of his experiments with trees in wireless teleg-
raphy. He finds that vigorous growing trees may be
used instead of kites or balloons for sending and receiving
messages and thus making it possible to set up a new
station in the field in less than fifteen minutes. |

“The Forest Wealth of Oregon” by Edmund P.
Sheldon, is apparently designed as an advertisement of
the Lewis and Clark Exposition, but it is a pamphlet
well worth owning by the botanist since it contains a list

20 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

of ninety-five trees and large shrubs of the State of
Oregon together with description of their salient features,
use and range. The pamphlet is published in Portland,
Oregon.

Park and Cemetery, of Chicago, has added a most
valuable feature in the form of a monthly mdex to the
articles in other publications that are likely to be of
interest to its readers. This list is made up from nearly
forty papers devoted to horticulture, floriculture, forestry
and kindred subjects. The list is alphabetically arranged
but we suggest that it would be improved by setting the
titles in italic or capitals.

‘Flower Fables and Fancies”’ is the attractive title
of an attractive little book by N. Hudson Moore which
treats of several well known flowers including the rose,
lily, chrysanthemum, lilac, crocus, etc. The volume
makes no claims to being complete, but tells in an enter-
taining way with many extracts from the poets of the
various fancies about the flowers. There are many
illustrations from photographs and each page has a
decorative border in color suitable to the subject of which
it treats. (New York, The F. A. Stokes Co., $1.60 net.)

The Japanese are great lovers of flowers and in an
intelligent appreciation of them doubtless excel the people
of our own land. Such an occurrence as that of a whole
nation ceasing work just to go out and look at the
blooming cherry or plum trees could scarcely happen in
bustling America. In the ‘Japanese Floral Calendar,”’
Ernest W. Clement has given us other glimpses of the
Japanese regard for flowers. The art of arranging flowers
in Japan appears to be most complicated. An English-
man who has studied the theory of it required three
hundred pages to properly describe it. Mr. Clement’s
little book treats of the flowers most popular in each
month of the year, with many examples of Japanese
poetry relating to flowers. There are a large number of
excellent illustrations. (The Open Court Publishing Co.,
Chicago.) |

$10 0) 4 Year.

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No. 1, published January 20, 1905, deals with all the
‘“‘natural-science’”’ studies of common schools. —

Bi-monthly. Forty-eight pages. Illustrated. | =

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VOL. 8.

- FEBRUARY, 1905. No.2

THEAMERICAN
BOTANIST.

CON THN TS.
10 ‘ THE COMMON CLEMATIS, - = : 21
| MY SPRING GARDEN, - - =. = - 22

CENTS Dr. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY.
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| BOOKS AND WRITERS - - - - 389

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THE AMERIGAN BOTANIST
A MONTHLY JOURNAL FOR THE PLANT LOVER.

Issued on the 15th of Each Month.
WILLARD N. CLUTE, = - - EDITOR.

SPECIAL NOTICE.

Two volumes of this magazine are issued each year. Subscriptions 60 cents a
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Books Recommended

In this department we shall, from time to time, recom-
mend books that to us seem of special value to readers of
this journal.

Iil.—Fern Books.

It all depends upon what you want the book for. Ifa technical manual with
descriptions of the North American species, get Underwood's ‘‘Our Native Ferns’’
($1.08); if a popular handbook for Eastern America select either Parson’s ‘‘How
to Know the Ferns’’ ($1.63), Water’s ‘‘Ferns’’ ($3.34) or Clute’s ‘*Our Ferns in
Their Haunts’’ ($2.15). Parson’s book is well written but the keys are difficult,
Water's book has two technical keys and is. illustrated with many photographs:
Clute’s book has more text than either, has illustrated keys, colored plates and the

* 225 other illustrations are by an artist of ability. The real fern lover needs all
three. Eastman's ‘‘New England Ferns"’ ($1.25) is a new book that is useful but
not so comprehemsive as the others, while Dodge’s ‘‘Ferns and Fern Allies of
New England’’ (50 cts.) is-a complete little technical mannal. Clute’s ‘‘Fern
Collector’s Guide’’ (50 cts.) tells where to find ferns and how to press, mount and
identify them, Useful to take into the field. ;

For the above books, or any others, address,

WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., ~~ — Binghamton, N. Y.

S&S OB! B'-O BO BD'-O 3- O DO D--O @]'- Ooo
e ‘

be «:00:e O19 3-3! O- <2: - Bio

9
¢
9
8
9
;
3
4
'
’
4
4
é
!
;
;

CHARLES D. PENDELL, PRINTER, BINGHAMTON, N. Y.

a

SpA lies

PERMISSION OF KNIGHT & MILLET, BOSTON. FROM “WILD FLOWERS OF NORTH AMERICAS

COMMON CLEMATIS. COPYRIGHT 1878, BY S. E. CASSINO, BOSTON, —

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

VoL. VIII. BINGHAMTON, N. Y., FEBRUARY, 1905. No. 2.

THE COMMON CLEMATIS.
(Clematis virginiana.)

|i July or August the saunterer along country by-ways

is pretty certain to find the flower-laden sprays of the
common clematis spreading over the shrubbery in its
haunts. Although lacking the tendrils of the grape and
the twining stem of the bindweed, it is an expert climber
and seldom rests until its topmost sprays have formed a
tangled mat of green over its support. Its method of
getting up in the world is somewhat out of the ordinary
and consists in the coiling of the petioles about any
convenient support. The tendrils of the common garden
pea are evidently transformed leaflets, but the clematis is
able to retain its leaflets by making its petioles do extra
work. Since the stem is not annual like that of the pea
it would not do to cut off leaf and petiole in autumn as
other perennial plants do, so the leaflets themselves are
cut off leaving the coiled petiole as a permanent support
for the stem.

Although the flowers are dicecious, that is, the
stamens and pistils are on separate plants, they apparent-
ly produce no nectar but are nevertheless able to secure
the visits of insects by providing them with plenty of
pollen. The insects that transfer the pollen are small flies
and possibly a few bees. Asis well known the two kinds
of flowers differ slightly, the staminate ones have only the
usual four-parted calyx but the pistillate have a circle of
petal-like organs inside the calyx which are probably the
remains of stamens. After the sepals have fallen these
remain for a time to make the flower more conspicuous.
After pollination the styles lengthen greatly and develop
the soft fluffy hairs that aid in transporting the seed.

22 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

It is frequently assumed that the name of virgin’s
bower applied to this plant was given in honor of the
Virgin Mary but this isa mistake. The European count-
erpart of our plant (Clematis vitalba) was named virgin’s
bower by Gerard ‘‘by reason of the goodly shadows
which they make” and our plant appears to have had the
name transferred toit. Nor does the specific name have
a similar allusion for it was given because this species
was first known from Virginia. The Old World plant is
sometimes called white vine and old man’s beard, the
latter doubtless in allusion to the feathery styles when
ripe. Traveller’s joy is another name the plant often
bears in literature, at least. The stems are said to afford
the small boy with the materials tor smoking.

MY SPRING GARDEN.
BY DR. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY.

APPY is that person who has a garden bed, however

smallitis. Here may be watched the coming on of
Spring, and after a cold, bleak winter what is more
delightful? Whatever may happen to a garden later, and
many things occur to mine, such as excessive shade,
thieving elm-roots, drouth, burrowing dogs (dogs do
burrow do they not ?), the disrespectful gamin, and weeds
sempiternal, still, the vernal season discloses a mystery
and declares a dividend. I experience a delight like unto
German Elizabeth, she of the immortal babies. Every
morning there is a revelation.

Early in March, or some years even in February, may
be seen the pretty snowdrops nodding on their stems.
One is apt to consider this cernuous habit an accident,
but there are few if any accidents in Nature. A little
attention discloses the fact that the pretty white flower,
tipped with apple green, acts like a tent to protect the
pollen from rain. It is essential that it be not washed
away as, in its own country, it is necessary to the perfec-
tion of fruit and seed. This rarely, if ever, attains perfec-
tion with us.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 23

Rossetti describes the flowers as having ‘‘a heart:
shaped seal of green.’’ Of the six parts, it is the imner
three that are narrow and notched at the apex. Usually
there is but one flower on a stem, emerging from a sort of
spathe, and attached to the ovary. The divisions of the
flowers, as well as the stamens, are six in number and the
anthers of the latter are golden yellow. While there are
a number of species known to botanists, nivalis is the
most satisfactory and the one oftenest seen. To double
them is to “gild refined gold;’”’ asa matter of fact, they
are handsomer single—as are most flowers. They are’
Crimean, Caucasian or Mediterranean in origin, and
nivalis, at least, appears perfectly hardy. We have often’
seen it on Valentine’s day—coincident with snow and 1 ice."
The plants are of the Amaryllis family. 4

Other plants equally early and hardy are the various:
crocuses, all of the Iris family. One may at first suppose'
them to be of the lily alliance, but the three stamens with!
backs to the pistil and the flower tube adherent to the!
ovary, though often well under ground, show their affilia-'
tion to the fleur-de-lis. "

The species are mostly from Eastern Europe, Greece, '
the Crimea and Palestine. Some extend as far as Central
Europe, and others, by long cultivation, have established
themselves—as in England, where one might take them to
be indigenous. Even here they will hold their own in
garden-bed or grass-plot fora long time. They exhibit a!
great range of color—from pure white through lavender
to violet and purple, and from pure yellow to orange:
Their species are infinite. We have an octavo, or rather
folio volume in the University Library exhibiting large
numbers of them in exquisite color. Besides their colors,
the satiny sheen adds to their charm. Ona sunny spring
day I can watch them for hours envying the bees who:
explore their silken pavilions. By the way, how soon
these busy fellows find them out, as they do also the
honey-laden catkins of the willow! ne

One species, Crocus saterris, is a light purple, autumn.

24: THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

flowering species and its stainens and stigmas yield the
saffron of commerce. The best comes from Spain and is
used not only in mediciné but for its coloring properties.
The so-called autumn crocus or Colchichum does not even
belong to the same family.

Everybody knows the pretty little blue squills, Scilla
siberica and other species, a near relative of the onion and
Ornithogalum umbellatum or ‘star of Bethlehem.’”’ The
squills, however, possess bright blue, fragrant flowers
and long narrow leaves. They occur naturally in
England, and several species are cultivated.
| . Before any of these are well out of bloom, I generally
notice that my crownimperial is up, but perhaps owing
to my pronounced Republican principles, it refuses for me
to don its coronal. It is an old-fashioned flower, bad-
smelling but handsome and especially notable for the
large, opaline glands on the inside of each segment of the
perianth. These are honey-secreting. Again, the nodding
position of the flower protects it from rain. Its cousin
the guinea-hen Fritillaria is more peculiar than beautiful.
The name Fritillaria, by the way, is said to be derived
from “‘fritillus,’’ a checker-board, from the mottled aspect
of this species.

' If I had my way, which means room and money, I
should have one entire bed of narcissus. What a clean-
cut type itis! Every line is decided. There is the white,
pure poeticus, with ruby-tinted crown, the glorious golden
trumpets of daffadil—‘‘ten thousand saw I ata glance,”’
and then the canary fluff of a doubled jonquil. There are
small, delicate kinds, too, very dainty.

- ,;Hardly are these in full bloom, when lo! the hyacinths
light up their beacons. They revel in most of the colors
of the palette but seem to feel the weight of their respon-
sibility; they droop heavily on their inefhcient stems. I
hate to uproot a hyacinth but, as a matter of fact, the
new bulbs planted fresh each year do the best. The old
ones gradually run out.

So is it, too, with tulips, and both, so far as culture

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. hs

goes, come from Holland. I don’t care for a fancy tulip’;
give me the clear yellow chalice, a Holy Grail, or a
crimson, or rose pink one. To some flowers the name
gorgeous especially applies. It is so with tulips. One
feels in looking at a bed of them as if he had walked into
the court of the Grand Monarch. They appear to step in
stately minuettes or graceful gavottes. They courtesy
and bow with formal pause and progress. ae

Such are some of the joys of my garden. They are
above politics and outside diplomacy. If, while we watch}
a robin comes, too, and chants his sweet vernal hymn, wé
envy neither king nor bond-holder. These treasures are
ours— Rigi

“All’s right in the world!”’

Brown University, Providence, R. I.

THE SIGN OF THE MOON.
BY O. W. BARRETT. }
OUR note in the October AMERICAN BOTANIST on
‘The Sign of the Moon,” quoted from transcript of
the American Institute of Mining Engineers, touches .4
sore spot. Here in Porto Rico we are confronted with
this detestable superstition concerning the weird influ!
ences of the front and hind quarters rif our satellite,—'
affronted with it under so many forms and degrees of
rationality that it gets on our nerves and makes us
desperately long for its dissolution.
It is bad enough to be obliged to wait for the ioe
change of the moon before cutting your timber or a fence
post to mend a gap in the fence, but it is worse to have to
select the correct phase for harvesting your corn, planting
your beans, setting your bananas, etc.; and when you are
told that you must not cut your nails except in the
‘‘wane’’ of said orb under dire danger to your bodily and
moral health,—we believe you are at liberty to form some
striking conclusions.
Iam pleased to note that the engineer who ees
his convictions in the article in question actually realized

26 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

that some few varieties of wood were not so susceptible
to the subtile attractions of ‘‘fair Luna,” but of course he
misses the important fact that the environment under
which the cut timber is kept after felling, the condition of
the wood at time of cutting, and the species determine the
future state of the timber.

_ What worries me, however, is the fact that, sooner or
latter, some one of the many obviously intelligent
believers in this old moon hoax will find some apparent
excuse for his ideas and foist it upon the long-suffering
public in such a way that many will remark ‘‘ Well, there
may be something init.’’ Let us resolve to meet all such
matter in the manner it deserves.

Mayaguez, Porto Rico.

A WEED STUDY.
BY H. C. SKEELS.

N the fall of 1903 a railroad embankment was built
three miles east of Joliet, near the Forest of Arden.
The earth for this was taken from a pasture next the
right of way, an excavation about 2 feet deep being
made over an area 75 by 250 feet. In the following
February, 1904, this excavation was filled with manure
from the Chicago stockyards
There is an idea prevalent among many people, of
which I am one, that a manure pile is uncongenial soil
for plants, because it is too rich. The above conditions
gave a chance to test this, and the results of the first
season of growth give some idea of the ability of plants
to withstand conditions that might seem at first sight
almost prohibitory to plant life.

_ It will be seen that it was almost necessary for all
plant growth to come from seeds or plants already in
the manure. All native plants were cleared away in the
excavating. All seeds dispersed by surrounding plants
were buried under two feet of manure, and seeds dispersed
after March ist are comparatively few. A fact which
bears out these conclusions is as follows: the general

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. oF

appearance of the plot all season was that of a barnyard,
with a few patches of green scattered about. Neverthe-
less, the green was there and its character was very
interesting.

Naturally, mat plants predominated as soil cover,
the most prevalent one being white clover. This covered
probably one-tenth of the whole area, and its presence in
the manure is hard to explain. White clover is not cut
for hay and is not commonly a pasture plant in regions
from which cattle are shipped. Red clover was present,
but not in any quantity. The other plants of the rosette
form, or approaching it, were mullein, catmint, teasel,
evening primrose, sweet-clover and plantain. Among
these were several surprises. Mullein, a biennial, was
found flowering, four plants, and many of the first year
form. There was also one plant in flower of the bull
thistle. These were a puzzle until pulled up. It was then
evident that the plants came in the manure; and this
explains the number of species of annuals common to the
Joliet-Chicago regions found the first season. The manure
must have been taken from a pile which had been undis-
turbed for at least one season.

Another surprise was the scarcity of sweet-clover.
This is the most prevalent weed of the region. It lines all
roadsides and railroads through the vicinity and was
the first plant to gain a foothold on the immense piles of
limestone along the Chicago drainage channel. Yet the
bunches of sweet-clover on this particular area could be
counted on the fingers of one hand, and all were the first
year form.

There were three rosette plants not belonging to the
region. Verbena bracteosa appeared in several places,
covering the ground like a mat, one plant in a place.
Another spreading mat with small white flowers and
loaded with little green tomatoes, was Solanum triflorum.
One of the most noticeable clumps was a plant as large
as a bushel basket, with yellow flowers and prickly fruits,
stems and leaves—Solanum rostratum. This was really

28 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

the one bit of beauty in the whole stricken area. Two
other nightshades were present sparingly, S. Carolinia-
num and S. eleagnifolium, the former having become
established previously inthe region and the latter making
its appearance for the first time.

Among the erect plants appear the annuals mentioned
above and afew perennials which were probably growing
on or near the pile in Chicago, but may have come in the
cars from more distant fields. Among these plants were
several species of pigweeds, one Chenopodium ambrost-
oides, being a new tenant. There were two species of
dock, several smartweeds, three verbenas besides the
bracteosa, several plants of thistle, a few amaranths, and
four groups of plants that seemed so thoroughly at home
as to require special mention.

_ Neither of the two common species of Jimson-weed is
prevalent around Joliet. A few plants are occasionally
seen along the old Illinois and Michigan canal, but they
are notcommon. In this special area, three miles away
from the contaminating influences of weedy Joliet, there
grew two clumps of purple Stramonium and one of white,
over four feet high and forming the most striking appear-
ance in this barren spot. There was also another clump,
over five feet high and perfectly healthy and happy—Iva
xanthifolia.

Here then, in the midst of a fertile pasture, is an area
of 18,750 square feet, entirely deprived of its beautiful
covering of June grass, converted into a dumping ground
for the refuse of a distant community of uninterested
people, and made into a breeding place of noxious weeds.
While it cannot muster sufficient plant life to allow one
individual to a square foot and has representatives of
only about thirty-two species all told, it must bear the
odium of producing but one plant not considered a weed,
and that C’nothera biennis, a doubtful member of the
list of desirabie neighbors. The only claim to respectabil-
ity the area can make is the fact that, although it has
produced eight weeds not previously found in the region,

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 29

none of which are worse than the weeds more common, it
has proven that white clover can stand the conditions
which prevail during a trip from distant pastures on a
crowded cattle-car, either on the floor, or in the digestive
tracts of the inmates; can be dumped on a refuse pile in
the Chicago stockyards, reloaded and shipped back part
way over its old route, spread out on the ground in the
bleakest month of the year, and still retain sufficient
vitality to appear as the most prominent covering of this
desolated spot of ground, and hold out to the future a
hope for the sweetest honey that bees can make.

Joliet, Til.

THE GREENISH-FRINGED REIN ORCHIS.
BY WALTER ALBION SQUIRES.

| OST of our native orchids are at home only in the
peaty loam of sphagnum bogs or the deep shade of
mossy woods. The greenish-fringed rein orchis (Haben-
aria leucophza) is a child of the prairies. With the
possible exception of certain species of Spiranthes it is to
be found farther out upon the plains than any other
member of this interesting family of flowering plants. I,
have found it growing alshast hidden in the rank grass of
low moist meadows in central Kansas. In the eastern.
part of the state it is found quite abundantly, but here
seems to prefer upland meadows. ns
Rising from the ground with a stout erect stem often
three feet j in height, its petals of a modest greenish yellow,
it cannot compare in beauty and grace with the Pogonias,
Calopogons and Cypripediums. . It-is, however, a hand-
some plant arid in its structural adaptations to insect
cross-fertilization one of the most interesting and wonder-
ful plants to be found in anycountry. I shall never forget
the day, many years ago, when in examining the flower
of this plant for the first time, I placed the point of a
small wire nail in the open throat of the flower. I had
not then read Darwin’s book on the fertilization of
orchids and was taken entirely by surprise to find that

30 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

two small disc-like bodies had attached themselves firmly
to the nail. On attempting to remove the nail I found
that to each disc was fastened a short stalk or cord
which could be drawn out to quite a length, an inch or
more, like a piece of india-rubber or a small coiled spring.
This coil was so elastic that it instantly returned to its
former length as soon as the pollen masses were pulled
out of their sockets.

The spurs of this orchis are long and narrow and so
thin in texture that the clear, watery nectar at their tips
can be easily seen through the tissues of the spur. Their
length as well asthe time of day at which the flowers give
off their perfume would indicate that they depend, for
cross-fertilization, upon the evening-flying sphinx moths.
Pick a bunch of their flowers at almost any hour of the
day and they seem to have scarcely any odor even when
held close to the face; but put them in a vase and set
them away until evening and just as dusk is beginning to
fall they will fill the room witha perfume so strong and
sweet as to be almost stifling.

The greenish-fringed rein orchis should be classed as
one of our vanishing American wild flowers. So far as I
have been able to determine, it is to be found only in
natural meadows of native grasses. The number of such
places in our Prairie States is year by year becoming less
and less before the advance of the plow. When thelast of
this native sward has disappeared this inoffensive and
interesting plant will have gone from our prairies forever.

Kooskia, Idaho.

FRINGED GENTIAN NOTES.
BY J. FORD SEMPERS.

S many of us are aware, the fringed gentian is being
rapidly exterminated in many localities. In the
vicinity of towns the large showy flowers rarely go un-
noticed by even the most unobservant. The wholesale
gathering of the blossoms in years past has, in many
cases, been followed by a corresponding wide spread dis-

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 31

appearance of the species. Witha constantly diminishing
number of blossoms left each year to mature seeds, the
work of extinction has progressed rapidly and surely.
This has been the history of the plant’s existance in many
localities, and unfortunately is being repeated in others in
a way that is not pleasant to think of.

Efforts are now being made to find out something of
the plant’s life history prior to the blossoming period,
with the ultimate object of making propagation possible.
If these are successful some hope may be entertained of
restocking many situations, or, at least, of introducing
the plant in the wild garden. It may therefore be of
interest in this connection to add a fact or two to those
previously noted. Those are given simply as they have
been gathered from observation. |

It has not been possible thus far to verify by experi-
ment, the suggestion previously made that the plant may
occasionally become a winter annual. That is that the
seed may germinate as soon as ripe in autumn, and
_develop into small plants before severe weather sets in.
The seed will germinate in autumn, but not unless the soil
temperature is constant and equivalent to that of late
spring. Judging by the results of a number of sowings
made in the field, in the garden and under glass, it seems
that the average time for the young plants to appear is
about May 15-20. Or at that time in this locality when
all danger of frost is past. The young plants begin to
appear quite uniformly whether the seed be sown in the
field or in the garden.

With few exceptions, the vitality of those seeds exper-
imented with appeared remarkably resistant to weather
extremes so long as the temperature of the soil remained
below that previously given. Excessive wetness, dryness
or frost seeming to have little effect on the germinating
quality of the seeds when the time arrived for growth to
begin. .

A number of seeds in each of the sowings were not
influenced by heat or moisture. As these seeds were

OZ THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

apparently not dead, it is supposed that they would
start into growth the next season.

So it seems that the gentian seed does not differ from
that of certain other plants in beimg able to retain its
vitality through periods of adverse conditions, and yet
spring into life when these are replaced by others that are
favorable. Itis not improbable that this dormant exist-
ence may, in the case of some of the seeds, precede by a
season or two the final awakening of their vitality, as
commonly happens with the seeds of many other plants.

Aitkin, Md.

MAT PLANTS.

Mat plants are plants with numerous prostrate
branches which are usually closely crowded and form a
more or less circular body a few inches to eight or more
feet in diameter. This prostrate discoid body habit is
quite characteristic of a small number of plants belonging
to various families. Among the most typical mats may
be mentioned Amaranthus blitoides, Portulaca oleracea,
Euphorbia maculata and Euphorbia serpyliitolia. Mats
are usually annual plants either of the ordinary herbace-
ous typé or very fleshy. There are, however, a number of
geophilous perennials which form mats, like Verbena
bracteosa. The main radiating branches usually give rise
to numerous smaller branches | and they may or may not
strike root. In the more typical cases there are no roots
except the main central root. Mats are especially char-
acterized by having a large number of small leaves, seeds,
and flowers. There peculiarities, of course, harmonize
with the shape and position of the plant.

Like most ecological groups, mat plants intergrade
with other types of body habit. On the one hand they
pass over into such forms as Malva rotundifolia, Callir-
rhoe involucrata, Citrullus citrulus; and the typical
carpet plants; ane on the other, transitions occur
between them and tumble-weeds or even normally erect
forms. Although it is not intended to give a definition

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 35

here of carpet plants, yet, since the terms mat and carpet
are often used synonymously, it might be stated that
typical carpets are perennials with numerous trailing
branches or runners which take root at the nodes and
develop low tufts of leaves or rosettes, finally forming a
close low covering of the ground. Among this type of
carpet plants may be mentioned the buffalo-grass (Bulbilis
dactyloides) and the various species of Antennaria.

Mat plants are at home in open and exposed places
where there is little or no individual crowding. They are
abundant on prairies and appear extensively on newly
plowed land. On newly broken prairie they are usually
the most characteristic vegetation. They are also promi-
nent on dry or moist sandbars, on salt marshes and in
cultivated fields. | : :

Nearly all typical mats, when growing in shaded
places, assume the upright habit. But it is especially
interesting to note that normally erect plants may
assume the mat habit in a suitable environment. One of
the most striking cases is the slender pig-weed (Amaran-
thus hybridus), which is usually erect and often attains
the height of eleven feet. This plant when growing on
exposed dry or moist sandbars frequently developes asa
mat without a central stem but with a number of pros-
trate radiating branches. Sometimes there is a central
erect stem a few inches high with long prostrate branches
radiating in all directions from the base. The same form
has been seen by the writer on sandhills in central Kansas.
So peculiar is the appearance that one hardly recognizes
the plant in its new form. SEragrostis purshii and Dip-
lachne acuminata also form mat-like bodies when grow-
ing on sandbars. On exposed broken ground various
normally erect, ascending, or decumbent plants also form
mats. Noteworthy among these are Echinochloa crus-
galli, Eragrostis major and Cenchrus tribuloides. In salt
marshes of the interior one meets with fleshy mat plants
like Sesuvium sessile. Sesuvium martimum is common
on the sands of the Atlantic coast. Dondia depressa is

34 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

also a fleshy halophyte which commonly assumes the mat
form on the salt marshes of Kansas.

It should not be difficult, with suitable physiological
experiments, to determine the ecological factors which
induce the formation of mats. Intense light and unob-
structed space appear to be very important. The wind
may have some influence. Water supply appears to have
little or no effect. Thus Eclipta alba was observed to
form perfect mats on very wet exposed sandbars but in
shaded situations a little distance away it grew entirely
erect, some plants being three teet high.—John H. Schaffner
in Ohio Naturalist.

a

z Nete and Corpsmenl.

oes

WANTED.—Short notes of interest to the general bot-
anist are always in demand for this department. Our
readers are invited to make this the place of publication
for their botanical items.

THE PASSION-FLOWER MEDICINAL.—It is reported
that the common passion-flower (Passiflora incarnata)
which often becomes a weed in the Southern States is of
value as a drug for inducing sleep and does not produce
the bad atter effects of other sleep-producing drugs. The
medicinal quality is said to reside in the root and to be
poisonous in large doses.

THE TonKA BEAN.—The tonqua, tonka or Tonquin
bean of commerce first reached Europe from the Chinese
province of Tonquin. It is the dried seed of the fruit of
Dipterix odorata and it owes its peculiar odor for which
itis valued toa crystallizable principle known as coum-
arin. Atleast two other members of the vegetable king-
dom Melilotus officinalis (sweet clover) and Anthoxan-
thum odoratum (sweet vernal grass) are indebted to the
same principle for their fragrance.—Indian Planting and
Gardening.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 35

THE OLDEsT BoTANICAL MAGAzINE.—They apparently
have more tenacity of purpose on the other side of the
Atlantic than we have. According to The Gardening
World the London Botanical Magazine has appeared
uninterruptedly for one hundred and eighteen years. In
America, publications may begin with the intention of
living that long, but the publishers usually compromise
by excluding the hundred years and few are able to exist
for the other eighteen. We pride ourselves upon being a
versatile people but stick-to-it-iveness is often as much of
a virtue as versatility.

TuaT STaBLE NOMENCLATURE.—Less than a year ago
we referred in these columns to the fate that has befallen
the actinella at the hands of the name tinkers. For a
great number of years certain plants were known as
members of the genus Actinella. Since ‘‘stable’’ nomen-
clature became the rage, the name has been changed to
Picradenia by Britton and to Tetraneuris by Greene.
Now comes a new aspirant for fame and makes it
Hymenoxys. If anyone can think up a more unpro-
nounceable combination let him attack this defenseless
genus. Meanwhile we will call it Actinella and be under-
stood, at least. |

TRIPLE JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT.— Last spring while I
was searching for some specimens at the Gorge, a summer
resort near Akron, I found a triple ‘“Jack-in-the-pulpit,”
or ‘“‘Indian Turnip’? as it is sometimes called. The
pulpits were well shaped and of ordinary size. Two of
the Jacks were grown together and the other was slightly
separated. The plant also had two well formed leaves
and the bulb was of ordinary size. When it began to fade
I pressed and mounted it. It is one of the many curiosi-
ties of nature. It was quite interesting to see three
‘‘Jack-in-the-pulpits”” grown together and being borne by
one stem. It brought a thought to my mind of three
ministers of the same denomination preaching on the true
text ‘‘Love of Nature is Love of God.’’—Edward L. Cope,
Akron, Ohio.

36 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

Jop’s TeEars.—According to Indian Planting and
Gardening the grass known as Job’s tears (Coix Jacryma-
jobi) has been used for food and ornament from time
immemorial. The round, hard, bluish-white fruits with a
perforation in the middle is supposed to have first
suggested the idea of beads. The stony character of the
fruits incline botanists to think that this is the Litho-
spermon mentioned by Pliny. The plant also has reputed
medicinal virtues.

HIBERNACULA.—Many water plants that disappear at
the approach of cold weather tide over this season by
means of curious propagative buds called hibernacula.
These buds are formed at the tips of the stems in early
autumn and differ from ordinary buds principally in being
much thicker and stored with nourishment. As the plant
dies these heavy buds sink to the bottom where they pass
the winter. In spring the buds begin new stems and in
the case of floating species bubbles of gas are evolved
which soon carry them to the surface again. The species
in our flora that usually form hibernacula are the duck-
meats (Lemna, Spirodela and Wolfiia), the bladder-worts
(Utericularia), the pondweeds (Potamogeton) and the
ditch moss (Elodea).

GOLDEN SEAL.—The United States Department of
Agriculture has recently issued a pamphlet on golden seal
(Hydrastis Canadensis) a wild plant of medicinal value
that is tast becoming rare, though the demand for it by
the drug trade is steadily increasing. The dried roots
and rootstocks are the parts used and the prices paid
vary with the supplyand demand. Ten years ago golden
seal could be bought for less than twenty cents a pound,
now the average price is above fifty cents and choice lots
have been sold for $1.40 a pound. Experiments made in
cultivating the plants show that an acre will yield 1500
pounds of marketable roots after three years’ cultivation.
It thus appears that considerable money may be made in
cultivating the plant in proper localities. At present the
entire supply comes from wild plants.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. Ot

CALIFORNIA RED FLOWERS.—I find in looking over
my check-list of Southern Caiifornia flowers, we have a
number of red flowers not mentioned in your journal and
will include as a partial list of them wild gooseberry
( Ribes speciosum), scarlet bugler (Pentslemon centranthi-
folius), Indian pink (Silene Californica), southern scarlet
larkspur{Delphinium cardinale), California fuchsia (Zauch-
neria Californica), snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea), and
two Castilejas. The more I botanize the more I realize
that in southern California we have a flora peculiar to
this section and find it an interesting field. Every month
in the year is suitable for the work.—Mrs. Emma Buszek,
Orange, California. |

MOoneEY IN WILDFLOWERS.—It is not alone for their
beauty that plants are uprooted. A large number of our
plants are medicinal and command prices on the market
that make it profitable to dig them up for sale. Among
the common species whose roots or rootstocks are in
demand may be mentioned the marsh-mallow (Althea
officinalis), Seneca snake-root (Polygala senega), dande-
lion, burdock, poke, Indian hemp (Apocynum cannabi-
num), gentian (Gentiana lutea), lily-of-the-valley, lady’s
slipper (Cypripedium pubescens and C. parviflorum),
white hellebore (Veratrum viride), sweet flag, crane’s-bill
(Geranium maculatum), mandrake (Podophyllum) and
bloodroot. Many of these are so common and so easily
obtained that the prices realized are not large enough to
tempt the average collector, but others are steadily
becoming more difficult to find and prices are advancing.
Undoubtedly the time will come when the demands of the
drug trade for many of these can be met only by cultivat-
ing the plants. The stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and
seeds of many other wild plants are in demand. One
inclined to try cultivating any of these should ascertain
which are likeliest to become rare and by selecting those
that bring the best prices he is likely to get very good
returns for the time and money invested.

i i i i id

ae eer

Bie.

Mr. John H. Lovell says in a recent letter that a good
subject for study would be the local distribution of plants
and we heartily agree with him. In a general way we
are all familiar with the distribution of the plants in
which we have more than a passing interest—we do not
go to the hilltops for water lilies, nor to the cliffs for
fringed gentian—but possibly none of us could exactly
define the habitat of the most familiar wild flower in our
own locality. This matter of habitat is not simply a
matter of where seeds of the plant may chance to fall.
We may possibly find the cardinal flower blooming far
from its favorite stream but it does not persist long in
such places. The flourishing colonies are always found 1n
about the same quality of soil with about the same
amount of moisture. So it is with a majority of our
plants. It is a most absorbing study to ascertain the
exact amounts of water, light and heat, and the kind of
soil required by each plant. It will be well to keepa
record of all these features, noting any variations that
may occur. In this way we may be able to ascertain why
the skunk’s-cabbage is not found in every swamp and
why other plants are rare or absent from our locality.
At first glance the migratory weeds like sweet-clover,
orange hawkweed and prickly lettuce seem to thrive
almost anywhere, but further thought shows us that
they, too, have limits beyond which they do not go.
Now would be a good time to decide upon two or three
species for observation during the approaching season.
It would doubtless prove a fascinating subject for leisure
hours. | eerie cea

Sa ey pee

Readers of this magazine have doubtless noted the
frequency ‘with which articles from our pages have been
reprinted in other publications. These extracts have been

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 39

made not alone by botanical publications but by news-
papers and magazines as well in both this and foreign
countries. It is always something of a compliment to
our contributors when matter is reprinted in this way,
for editors are in the habit of selecting only the best of
matter for such purposes and do not clip from other pub-
lications with a view of pleasing other editors. The
reason that matter from this journal is so often selected
appears to us to be that the objects to which our contrib-
utors are giving attention are those that are uppermost
in the public mind, at least so far as botany is concerned.
In the time of Torrey, Wood and Gray new plants were
constantly being discovered, and articles on the nomen-
clature and relationships of plants were then most
attractive. But the passage of time has changed all this.
A decade or two in which we have had books on the
popular side of plant life has made the names of our
common plants familar to a large number of people and
these people now want to know more about them. The
botanizer seldom goes away for a vacation among the
plants nowadays without meeting other botanizers
similarly engaged. We expect to see this interest in plants
increase greatly in the next few years and believe that it
will be due in great measure to the influence of articles
like those we are publishing. In this connection it may
not be amiss to point out to possible contributors the
fact that a magazine so frequently quoted asthis is a very
desirable one in which to appear as a contributor.

BOOKS AND WRITERS.

Professors Bigelow and Lloyd of the Teacher’s
College, Columbia University, have recently brought out
a volume on ‘‘ The Teaching of Biology in the Secondary
‘School,’’ Professor Lloyd being responsible for the matter
relating to Botany and Professor Bigelow for that relat-
ing to Zoology. In the nearly five hundred pages of the
book the relations of these two sciences to education in
general, and to each other are most carefully, thoroughly

4.0 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

and impartially discussed. Each chapter also contams a
pretty full bibliography of the subject of which it treats.
In the chapters devoted to zoology there is much helpful
matter for any teacher of the science, but in view of the
vastness of both zoology and botany we cannot agree
with the author’s evident opinion that a half year each of
botany and zoologyis a desirable high school course. We
are, however, in hearty accord with the statements in the
chapter onhuman physiology and ‘‘temperance”’ instruct-
ion. Inthe botanical part of the book Professor Lloyd
recommends essentially what all teachers of botany now-
adays are coming to recognize as a proper botanical
course—a blending of physiology, morphology, ecology
and classification, and he would begin the course witha
study of the seed, tracing the developing plant from root
to stem, leaves, flowers and fruit and following this with
studies of plants typical of the larger groups before much
is done with ecology or classification. The bibliography
of this part of the work 1s here and there marred by an
absurd and whimsical omission of books or publications
that the author apparently does not like, though in many
cases they are more important than any ot their kind
included. On the whole the book is one that it is worth
every science teacher’s while to possess. It will give him
many new ideas and much food for cogitation. (Long-
man’s, Green & Co., New York, 1904.)

The publishers of Britton and Brown’s “Illustrated
Flora’”’ announce that the price of the work has been ad-
vanced one dollar a volume making the set now cost $12.
The reason for the advance is reported tobe that the work
was not electrotyped and therefore cannot be reprinted
when the present stock is exhausted.

The Iowa Naturalist has made its initial appearance.
It is edited and published by T. J. Fitzpatrick, lowa City,
Iowa, and intended primarily for exchange. Four num-
bers are to be issued each year.

ie value, Sixth year. Price $1. 00 per year,

| sm ae | \ = 2 i
8 THE PLANT WORLD =a

The Official Organ of The Wild Flower Preservation Society of America.
- If you are interested in botany THE PLANT WORLD wili interest you.

If you are a Teacher of botany THE PLANT WORLD will help you.

THE PLANT WORLD will keep vou in touch with modern botanical thought.
Send two-cent Edited by Francis E. Lloyd, Professor of Botany,

stamp fora Teachers College, Columbia University,
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VOL. . MARCH, 4905, > NO, S

THEAMERICAN
BOTANIST.

CONTENTS.

THE COLORS OF NORTHERN FLOWERS,
JoHN H. Love.Lu. ;

THE EARLIEST SPRING BLOSSOMS, -
. - WALTER ALBION SQUIRES.

| STIRRINGS OF LIFE,
Dr. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY,

; A SPHAGNUM BOG,
Frank DOBBIN.

LUMINOUS PLANTS,
NOTE AND COMMENT,
| EDITORIAL, -

‘BINGHAMTON, N. Y.
_ WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO.

-

SO ee me ee ee Be ee ene ee ee em eee ee pee Fe © ren re eee

THE AMERIGAN BOTANIST

A MONTHLY JOURNAL FOR THE PLANT LOVER.
Issued on the 15th ot Each Month. ee
WILLARD N. CLUTE, - © - EDITOR.

SPECIAL NOTICE. ;

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Entered at the Post Office at Binghamton, N. Y., as Second Class matter, Aug. 22, 1901.

BoTANICAL DRAUGHTSMAN

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OPP OO 1 OS DB! SO StS 0D SO Di KB SS <B1-O <D S

Books Recommended

In this department we shall, from time to time, recom-
‘mend books that to us seem of special value to readers of
this journal.

IiIl.—fFern Books.

It all depends upon what you want the book for. Ifa technical manual with
descriptions of the North American species, get Underwood's ‘‘Our Native Ferns’’-
($1.08); if a popular handbook for Eastern America select either Parson’s ‘‘How
to Know the Ferns’’ ($1.63), Water’s ‘Ferns’ ($3.34) or Clute’s ‘'Our Ferns in
Their Haunts"’ ($2.15). _ Parson’s book is well written but the keys are difficult,
Water’s book has two technical keys and is illustrated with many photographs:
Clute’s book has more text than either, has illustrated keys, colored plates and the
225 other illustrations are by an artist of ability. The real fern lover needs all
three. Eastman's ‘‘New England Ferns'’ ($1.25) is a new book that is. useful but
not so comprehemsive as the others, while Dodge’s ‘‘Ferns and Fern Allies of
New England” (50 cts.) is a complete little technical mannal. Clute’s ‘‘Fern
Collector’s Guide’’ (50 cts.) tells where to find ferns and how to press, mount and
identify them, Useful to take into the.field. .

For the above books, or any others, address,

WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., —_—Binghamton, N. Y.

OD OB OB OIE SI OBO OI OO! OS Vi SO Oi OQ®
CHARLES ©. PENDELL, PRINTER, BINGHAMTON, N. Y.

ea

PDP. SOP OD OD ODS] |
POP. DPI O DO 9 OD OH] <0 OD

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

Von. Vit. BINGHAMTON, N. Y., MARCH, 1905. No. 3.

THE COLORS OF NORTHERN FLOWERS.
BY JORN io - COVELL,.

N northeastern America north of Tennessee and east of
the Rocky Mountains there have been described some
4,020 flowering plants. The distribution of coloration in
our flora is a question of much interest, but one which up
to the present time seems to have Peeied no attention.
Recently I have tabulated the above species according to
the predominant colors of their flowers. I find that inthe
area named there are 1,244 green, 956 white, 801 yellow,
260 red, 434 purple, and 325 blue flowers. White flowers,
as is certainly very fitting after the snowy months of
winter, are most common in earlyspring. Yellow flowers
are common throughout the entire season, though per;
haps rather more abundant in fall than OE NINE Red
and blue are rarest in spring, but gradually increase as
the months pass until ey reach their maximum. in
autumn. 7
By far the larger part of the 1,244 green flowers are
pollinated through the agency of the wind. A very
familiar illustration of wind-pollination is maize or
Indian corn. No one who has walked through a field of
newly spindled corn can have failed to notice that bright
clouds of yellow pollen are borne away on the wings of
every breeze. I place the wind-pollinated plants in the
Northern States and Canada at about 1,048. They
include the great company of grasses, sedges and rushes,
and such homely weeds as the nettles, pigweeds, ama-
ranths, spurges, plantains and ragweed. Among the
shrubs and trees, which produce wind flowers, are the
alders, the earliest plants to bloom in northern New
aA rat' and the birches, poplars, beeches and elms.

‘

42 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

Years ago the willows were also fertilized by the wind,
but to-day they depend upon insects to carry their pollen.
These trees all blossom before or with the appearance of
their leaves,and many people never know that they bloom
at all. Itis not dificult to understand why they flower
so early, for the leaves later in the season would intercept
the flight of the pollen.

Wind-pollinated plants have small and inconspicuous
flowers which are green or dull-colored. Usually they
flower and fruit entirely unnoticed. It would be of no
advantage for them to produce bright colors or sweet
odors, for the wind bloweth where it listeth regardless of
all such attractions. The birches, however, have golden
and greenish yellow aments and the blossoms of the elm
are purplish. The glumes of grasses and the perianth of
cushes are also often purplish or reddish. So conspicuous
are the flowers of some rushes in Europe that they even
attract a few insects. The sorrels sometimes have the
entire plant red-colored, and in the Alps Muller saw a
butterfly examining a plant forhoney. The plantains are
midway between wind-fertilization and insect-fertiliza-
tion. Some odoriferous species display several hues and
attract not a few inseets. But as a whole wind-pollin-
ated plants have small greenish flowers.

Setting aside the great company of dull-colored wind
flowers there remain in northeastern America 2,972
species, which are pollinated by insects or are self-pollin-
ated. Of this number 223 have green, 955 white, 790
yellow, 257 red, 422 purple and 325 blue flowers. Most of
these 223 green flowers are smallor even minute, and many
of them have no petals. They are attractive chiefly to flies
and the smaller bees, asin the smilax and sumac families.
But the green pendulous flowers of the garden asparagus
are favorites of the honeybee. In the grape family the
petals never expand, but fall away by separating at the
base and coiling spirally upward. The fragrance which
resembles that of mignonette can be perceived at a long
distance. Kerner relates that in a journey up the Danube

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 43

he found the whole valley of the Wachan so filled with the
scent of the vine flowers that it seemed impossible that
they could be far off, yet the nearest vines were 300 yards
from the boat. The honeybee and many beetles have been’
collected on the flowers. Various exotic species of the
nightshade family and some Brazilian orchids possess:
large green flowers. They are strongly scented in the
evening and are attractive to moths. :

There are 790 yellow flowers in northeastern America,’
which vary greatly in size and form. Usually they are
wheel-shaped as in the buttercups and five-fingers; but
not infrequently they are very irregular in form, as in the
pea and figwort families where the corolla bears a more
or less fancied resemblance to butterflies and the heads of
reptiles. Asa whole, however, they are much less special-
ized than red or blue flowers. Highly modified yellow!
flowers usually exhibit great persistency of the primitive
yellow, and little tendency to vary in color. In the gold-+
enrods the individual flowers are very small and conspicu=
ousness is gained by their aggregation in dense clusters?
The bright yellow color of the flowers render them visible
in the evening as well as by day, and as the temperature
of the inflorescence at night is several degrees above the
surrounding air they sometimes serve as a refuge for
insects.

It was a few years ago believed that the drone flies
especially admired yellow. flowers. Because they were
observed to hover over the bright blossoms of buttercups
and marsh marigolds it was thought that they were
admiring the shining yellow surface. But there is not al
particle of evidence that this is so. Their behavior is
rather due to their habit of flight, and Plateau has
observed them poising on the wing before buds and sticks
and even the human finger.

The yellow color of autumn leaves and of most flowers
is caused bya pigment called carotin, familiar to everyone
in the root of the carrot. It always occurs in solid
granules called plastids, and is insoluble in water but

4.4. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

readily soluble in ether. It also occurs in all foliage leaves
though its presence is usually masked by the green pig-
ment of the leaf. In many plants, however, it is so
abundant that it gives a yellowish hue to the leaves. In
a few flowers and fruits, as in the yellow dahlia and the
peel of the lemon, the color is due to a yellow pigment
dissolved inthe cell sap and not to solid grains of carotin.
In plants with golden yellow foliage, asin many conifers
and various shrubs, still another yellow pigment has
been found. |

White flowers are most common in our flora as well
asin that of Europe. Many of the 955 white flowers in
the territory under consideration belong to shrubs and
trees. There is nothing more beautiful in the temperate
zone than an apple orchard in bloom with its billowing
banks of innumerable white blossoms, tinged with rose
and flecked with the vivid green of the newly unfolding
leaf buds. The cornels and viburnums are justly ranked
among our handsomest shrubs. They produce large
clusters of white flowers in such boundless profusion that
the entire shrub is transformed into a huge bouquet.
Small densely clustered white flowers are also common in
the mustard, saxifrage and carrot families. Nocturnal
flowers are also usually white.

White flowers contain no pigments. Like the snow
and powdered glass they owe their color to their optical
properties. To produce such vast numbers of blossoms
must of course tax the energies of a plant, and the absence
of pigments lessens this expenditure. Like white leaves I
believe that white flowers are the result of retrogression
or degeneration. Any bright colored flower may occa-
sionally revert to white. Whatever impairs the vigor and
vitality of the plant as cold, impoverished soil, injury to
the roots, or continued self-fertilization will cause the
floral hues to become paler or change to white. I once
transplanted a scarlet poppy when in bud and the flowers
became much smaller and changed to pure white. On the
other hand whatever stimulates the growth of a plant as

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 45

“bright sunlight, strong manures, or crossing increases the
brilliancy of the flowers. From this point of view we can’
understand why white flowers are most common in
Nature, and why they are truest to name under cultiva-
tion. Naturally florists find that they can develop any
desired color variety from a white flower more easily than’
from one already containing pigments. Individual white
flowers not infrequently change to yellow, as in Lantana,
or to red, asin Dianthus and Hibiscus mutabilis.

There are only 257 red flowers in our northern flora.’
They are most abundant in the pink family, or Caryo-
phyllaceze, which contains 22 species. The pinks exhibit
a wonderful variety of red shades varying through rose,
pink and deep red to scarlet and crimson. The petals’
may be dotted or marbled with white, and they are often’
notched or fringed, and surmounted with a corona of
scales. The scent is aromatic and the honey lies at the’
bottom of a long slender tube, where it is inaccessible to a’
great number of insects. The flowers are great favorites’
with butterflies, and, therefore, it has been thought that:
these insects prefer red coloring. But I am inclined to
believe that it is largely the result of a coincidence that
butterfly flowers are so often red-colored. For blue.
butterfly flowers do actually occur in Germany, while in’
the pink family there are no blue flowers. Moreover
butterflies visit most frequently of all the flat-topped
clustered flowers of the Composite, which afford them an
excellent landing place, and I have found.a much larger’
number of them on the dull white clusters of the common’
thoroughwort than on any other plant with which I am
acquainted. Red flowers are also very common in the
rose family, but there are no species which are adapted to
butterflies. They are also numerous in the pea, mallow
and heath families. Undoubtedly the two handsomest
North American shrubs belong tothe heath family. They
are Rhododendron maximum and Kalmia latifolia or the
mountain laurel. Asa Gray says that in North Carolina
they adorn the valleys and mountains in immense abund-

4.6 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

ance and profuse blossoming of every hue from deep rose.
to white. In the brilliancy of its coloring the cardinal
flower is unsurpassed by any other red flower.

The purple flowers number 422. This group contains
both red-purple and blue-purple flowers, as well as a few
brown, green and yellow-purple flowers. It presents
evidently a much greater variety of hues than any one of
the preceeding groups. Red-purple flowers are common in
the orchid and geranium families, while blue-purple are
numerous in the pea and mint families. The flowers of
Aristolochia, or birthroot, are lurid purple. In the Dutch-
man’s pipe of cultivation (A. sipho) the calyx is prolonged
into a tube, with a contracted throat either straight or
shaped like the letter S, which is set on the inside with
teflexed hairs. Flies can creep inside easily, but the hairs
prevent their escape. As soon as the anthers have
ripened, the hairs wither and the imprisoned insects, now
more or less covered with pollen, are set free. These
flowers should be compared with the pither-like leaves of
Sarracenia and the spathes of Arum, as all three serve as
traps for small flies and are lurid purple, a color which is
thought by some to be attractive to these insects.

The 325 northern blue flowers are most common in
the pea, violet, gentian, mint and figwort families. They
are often very.irregular in form, with the honey deeply
concealed and accessible only to the iong-tongued bees.
There are quite a number of flowers which are adapted to
bumblebees alone. The range of the aconites (Aconitum),
which are pollinated by bumblebees, is determined by the
geographical distribution of this genus of bees. In the
Alps the gentians are very numerous and display vivid
masses of blue coloring. Huxley, while seeking health in
the bracing air of these mountains, found great delight in
the study of these plants. Blue flowers are derived
frequently from red, yellow or white progenitors. Some-
times this color variation may be observed in individual
flowers, as in Myosotis versicolor, which is at first yellow
but later changes to blue.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 47

The red and blue coloring found in the leaves, flowers
and fruits of many plants is due to a soluble pigment
called anthocyan. It does not occur in grains like the
green and yellow pigments, but is dissolved in the cell sap.
When its condition is acid the color of the flower is red,
but when it is alkaline the color of the flower is blue. In
the rose family there are no blue flowers because the cell
sap is strongly acid. For the same reason there is but a
single blue flowered species known among the orchids.
On the other hand when the condition of the cell sap is
nearly neutral the flower may readily change from one
color to the other, or both colors may occur on the same
flower-cluster, or even in the saine flower, as has been
observed in the hyacinths. Red coloration is much more
common in foliage than blue, because the sap is usually.
acid. It is believed to aid the plant in the work of assim-
ilation by converting light rays into heat. Blue leaves
are rarer, but the upper foliage leaves of Protea globosa
of Australia, surrounding the bright yellow flowers, offer
a good example of blue leaves, while the lower leaves are
dark green. Anthocyan is probably a compound of a
tannic acid and a sugar for it occurs only in plants con-
taining tannic acid, and it rapidly increases when man
plants are fed with an invert sugar.

Readers desiring to pursue the subject further are
referred to my papers in The American Naturalist, Vol,
XXxI, page 493; Vol. xxxv, page 197; Vol. xxxvi, page
203; Vol. xxxvil, page 365.

Waldoboro, Me. r

THE EARLIEST SPRING BLOSSOMS.
BY WALTER ALBION SQUIRES.
i eae flower shall be first to appear in spring seems
to be determined largely by locality and exposure.
A species which blossoms earliest in one locality may not
be first in another. In rich woodlands the hepaticas
(Hepatica triloba and H. acutiloba) seem to be among the
earliest blossoms and I believe they are usually the first

\

48 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

to appear in such situations. In the deciduous forests
which skirt the western shore of Lake Michigan I have
dug through several inches of snow on New Year’s day
and found their nearly developed flowers already pushing
up through theleaf mold. Closely wrapped intheir warm
gray turs, they were ready to burst into blossom the
moment the warm spring sunshine should break through
their snowy cover-lid. In boggy places the flowers of the
skunk-cabbage (Svmplocarpus foetidus) are probably the
earliest. They often appear before the end of February.

On the prairies of northern Kansas the beautiful little
purple and white prairie anemones are usually the first
flowers to be found in spring. I am inclined to think,
however, that certain low-flowering, inconspicuous um-
belliferze are fully as early and in some places they prob-
ably precede the anemones. Farther south in the same
state the white dog’s-tooth violet is the earliest spring
flower. It is there often called ‘‘Easter flower’’ and is
usually found tobe quite abundant by Easter Sunday. In
eastern Kansas the ‘‘Dutchman’s breeches,’’ a delicate
and beautiful plant despite its unfortunate name, is fully
as early as the dog’s-tooth violets which grow in the
sunny spots of the praire and it is usually in full bloom
before the Erythroniums, which are its neighbors in the
shady woods, have begun to blossom.

Here among the mountains, prairies, and canyons of
northern Idaho a small buttercup (Ranunculus glaberrt-
mus) is our earliest spring flower. I have found it in
Sawyer’s Canyon as early as the sixteenth of February,
the very day on which the last traces of a heavy snowfall,
which had come a week before, vanished before the warm
Chinook winds. As one stood at the foot of the canyon
wall with flowers in bloom and the grass turning green
all around, he could harbly believe that scarce ten days
before the ground was covered with more than a foot of
snow, with the thermometer so far below the zero mark
and the air so full of frost that bright ‘‘sun dogs,”’ great

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 49

pillars of light at right and left, below and overhead had
accompanied the sun all day.

Though the buttercup is without doubt entitled tothe
honor of being called our earliest spring flower, here again
alow member of the parsley family is a close second. It
clings to the cliffs ot crumbling basalt among the mosses
and selaginellas. It blossoms soon after the first butter-
cups, and is followed closely by a small fritillary (Fritil
laria pudica), the vellow dog’s-tooth violet (Erythronium
grandiflorum), and the bluebells (Mertensia oblongifolia).

We love instinctively the first flowers of spring. There
is something in the first frail blossoms of the opening year
which seems totouch somewhere deep down inthe human
heart an element of universal sympathy. The toiling
farmer, the hurrying man of business, and the rough miner
far away in the solitude of the hills will often pause and
pluck the first spring blossom to gaze upon it for a
moment in silent thought. Is it simply because they tell
us that the cold and snow of winter are past and that
spring has come again, or is there in them a far deeper
meaning, a symbolism dimly grasped by every mind and
shadowed forth in the literature of every landand tongue?

As we see them spring in beauty, fresh with renewed
life and vigor, from the dead, cold earth of winter, is there
not an unseen psychologic process which unconsciously
associates them with those hallowed sentiments which
gather round our Eastertide—the expectation of a resur-
rection and the hope of immortality.

Kooskia, Idaho.

STIRRINGS OF LIFE.
BY DR. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY.

ie one were to put his ear to the ground at this season,

like Fine-Ear in the fairy tale, he might, perchance,
hear much commotion in the subterranean laboratories.
A thousand tiny mechanics are preparing for the spring
campaign. Night and daydo they labor on their invisible
anvils, welding armor for the fray.

50 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

What proof have we of this secret labor? The evi-
dence of our senses. The flower-bed, even in early
February, showed us various pale, sharp points aspiring
to the light and piercing the overlying counterpane of
rubbish. These plants, to be sure, are foreigners; cro-
cuses, snowdrops, snow-flakes, squills, tulips, hyacinths,
chisnodoxas. They know no better. Often they pay
dearly for their precocity.

But, afterall, they are not alone in vernal prepara-
tions. There comes a moving day for all plants. Go out
into the swampy woodlands in March and you will see
the quaint parti-colored hoods of skunk-cabbage (Symplo-
carpus). Often these protrude from the _half-frozen
ground. We always welcome these weird, gnome-like
forms, wrapped in their vivid green or dark maroon
mantles. Some holy order doubtless—but devoid of the
odor of sanctity.

Upturn the earth anywhere and numerous bulbs,
corms, and root-stocks will be found instinct with life and
covered with vigorous buds. From them later will grow
our adder’s-tongues, bloodroots, dwarf ginsengs, Jack-in-
the-pulpits and Solomon’s-seals. The buds were formed
last summer, so were new corms and buds, while root-
stocks prepared to continue a toraging expedition across
country, dying at one end while advancing at the other.
So do they seek and attain new soil. |
‘Tt is funny, but almost every year the writer has
presented to him as a startling fact that the trailing
arbutus (Epigzwa repens) is a-bud in February. As a
matter of fact, it formed its flower-bud last summer. In
the same way the willows, alders, hazels, and other.
amentaceous shrubs and trees, also maples, elms, etc.,
perfect their buds in a previous season. They hang upon
the branches all winter for everyone to see, but few take
note of them. This fact may be published a thousand
times. Itis of no use; the next year one can safely SS
the same sermon mde tec eas :

One of the earliest spring signs, noticeable in January:

en

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 1

even in this very severe winter, is the dripping ot the sap
from wounds on maples and birches. It often spots the
side walk in great wet blotches, which in March attract
the Vanessa antiopa or mourning-cloak butterfly. When
the ground is frozen hard, what should set the vital juices
moving? My physiological friends have never explained
this to my perfect satisfaction.

In March note the coloration of certain trees. The
twigs of willows turn yellow or orange; the red-maple
blushes rosy red, the sassafras becomes a lively green.
Each tree has its characteristic hue. It seems full of
hardly restrained life.

Along the brooks and about the springs grasses
become green. The well itself may be clothed with water-
star-wort (Callitriche verna). Byand bya bluebird turns
up here and there, or, better yet, a ‘windy congress”’ of
wrangling black-birds, who vote and filibuster like other
parliamentarians. Are they “pros” or ‘antis” we
wonder, or divided into ‘‘ists,” ‘ics’? and ‘‘ans?’’ Who
knows? Their convention, it may be a church congress
or revival meeting, is never adjourned sine die. ‘They
appoint an early day to meet again. |

Brown University, Providence, R. I.

A SPHAGNUM BOG.
BY FRANK. DOBBIN.

REGION of limited area which produces a distinct
group of plants is always of special interest to a
botanist. The sides and summits of high hills or mount-
ains, the margin of lakes or rivers, swamps and particu-
larly sphagnum bogs, each produce their own peculiar
forms of plant life. Even if one fails to find the particular
plant he may be searching for, the novelty of the situation
and the interest of the search have a charm of their own’

which ‘‘ bids dull care be gone.”’
I have, at different times of the year from March to
November, examined several sphagnum bogs in my own
and neighboring towns, and while my list of plants is not

52 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

so complete as it might behad I the time for more extend-
ed search, still a few notes concerning my trips to one bog
in particular may not be without interest to readers of
THE BoranlisT.

I usually intend to visit the place during the first week
in July for then is to be found that most beautiful of our
native orchids Cypripedium spectabile; some years in
abundance andagain only afew seattered plants. Always
at the same time I find the common pogonia (Pogonia
ophioglossoides) as well as the grass pink (Calopogon
pulchellus). As yet I have failed to find the arethusa (A.
bulbosa) although another bog, a few miles to the north,
has a few plants. This bog would appear to be an ideal
spot for the Habenarias, but only once have I found one
of them here. That species was Habenaria tridentata.
Of course many more are tobe expected in such places and
probably further search will be rewarded by new finds.

The swamp saxifrage (Saxifraga Pennsylvanica) is a
conspicuous plant and the water arum(CaJ/a palustris) is
abundantin spots. That beautiful member of the gentian
family the buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) and the
common pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) are resent
as they always are in such places.

The heath family furnishes a large number of species
particularly of the low shrubs, among them being the
marsh andromeda (Andromeda polifolia), the privet
andromeda (A. ligustrina), the leather leaf (Cassandra
calyculata), the sheep laurel (Kalmia angustifolia) and
the swamp blue-berry (Vaccinium corymbosum). The
small cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccus) is present as is
also the snowberry (Chiogenes serpyllifolia).

The white plumes of the cotton grass (Eriophorum
polystachyon) dot the open places in this bog, while many
other sedges particularly carices abound. In the pools of
open water I found a green plant which bothered me to
analyze for some time but which I finally found to be the
water starwort (Callitriche heterophylla).

* The surface of the bog is partially covered with a

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 53

growth of small trees among which the swamp spruce
(Picea brevifolia) seems to predominate. Among the
spruces are a few individuals of the mountain holly
(Nemopanthes fascicularis) and a great many bushes of
the poison sumach (Rhus venenata). It is well to handle
the latter literally ‘‘with gloves.”

In this bog I found for the first time the white moss
(Leucobryum glaucum) is fruit and inthe hollow made by
the upturned roots of a fallen spruce I found the liverwort
(Marchantia polymorpha) also abundantly in fruit. The
trees are thickly covered with different species of lichens,
among which Usnea barbata is conspicuous, and last
autumn under the spruces I found the mushroom
(Cantharellus infudibuliformis) a near relative of the
Cantharellus illustrated in the December BOTANIST.

Here I have only attempted to name some of the more
conspicuous and characteristic plants of sphagnum bogs.
If one disregard wet feet and muddy clothing, an hour
spentin such aplace is apt to prove a very interesting one.

Shushan, New York.

LUMINOUS PLANTS.

There are many things in nature of which the average
person is ignorant. Close observers, for instance, have
noticed that our common tuberose lily (Polyanthes
tuberosa) gives off sparks on a hot evening. We have
noticed these sparkling from a bunch of tuberoses on a
dark hot night, and they have seemed to us to partake of
the nature of electric sparks. Of course, the light may
have been phosphorescent, but it is not improbable that,
under the influences of heat and electricity, combined with
moisture, several tropical plants might exhibit a brilliant
light. A writer in the Journal of Horticulture recalls an
incident of some sixty years ago when there was exhibited
before the Royal Asiatic Society, the roots of a singular
plant, presumably a species of orchis, which grew amidst
the jungle below the Madura Hills, in India. It was
phosphorescent, and even if dried could be made to shine

54. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

with the brightness of a glow-worm when the surface had
a wet cloth applied for a short time. The editor of the
Gardeners Chronicle found that a small piece of this root.
retained its power of lighting up a good while, only the
light got feebler. The Brahmins, it was said, knew its
peculiarity, but all the plants did not possess this lumin-
osity at their roots. They imagined the light of it drove
away demons. ;

What is singular also, the sap of some trees in exotic
regions appear luminous, as it flows trom a wound. One.
shrub, indeed, has been named Euphorbia phosphorea
from this fact, and there are other instances. We have it
on the authority of the late Professor Henslow that the.
European dittany (Dictamnus fraxinella) evolves some,
inflammable gas in the evening, and, should the air be
still, if a light is brought near, the plant will be enveloped
in a transient flash, but receives no injury. Before his.
time the daughter of Linnzeus had stated that a plant of
D. albus, which she approached with a candle, became
surrounded by a light blue flame. Dr. Hahn suggested
the dittany might produce hydrogen or evolve an ethereal
oil from the flowers; he made many experiments amongst
species of Dictamnus unsuccessfully, but at last found a
rather faded plant, from which, when he held a match,
came a reddish crackling flame, having an incense-like
smell. Then he ascertained this can only happen during
the limited period of the flower’s fading, and also that
there are glands containing an aromatic oil. A Hima-
layan species of the genus has the reputation of making a
brilliant display nie dark, even when not approached by.
a light.

In 1843 Mr. Dowden described to the British Associa-
tion aluminous appearance witnessed one August evening
on the double variety of the common marigold. This was
seen by four persons. During the twilight a golden flame
appeared to play from petal to petal of some of the heads,
making a sort of corona round thediscs. This emanation
grew less vivid as the light decreased, then vanished,

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 55

Most of the scientists considered this was a case of visual
deception, but several years after Dr. Lankester established
it as a fact, if one very exceptionai. He noticed.such a
flame in the same species, and also in the hairy red poppy,
the flashes of light occurring at the end of a hot dry day.
Another gentleman stated that on a June evening, about
nine, he saw flashes of light pass along three scarlet
verbenas growing a foot apart in his garden. He called
the attention of his gardener and several other persons to
the spot, and the sight lasted quite a quarter of an hour.
There was a smoky appearance inthe air after the flashes,
which reminded one of the summer lightning in miniature.
Subsequently the same phenomenon was noticed amongst
some red pelargoniums, and it was repeated many times
during Julyand August, when the weather was sultry and
electric. Friends are requested to watch their Chrysan-
themums at dusk, since that flower is reported to be now
and then luminous, presumably the white and yellow
varieties. Other luminous plants are the white lily, the
nasturtium, the sunflower, the evening primroses and
some wall mosses.—Indian Planting and Gardening.

ES Note and Cormraent. e

er

WANTED.—Short notes of interest to the general bot-
anist are always in demand for this department. Our
readers are invited to make this the place of publication
for their botanical items.

PLANT PROTECTION.—One of the advantages of the
movement for the protection of our wild flowers is that
it has afforded an outlet for a lot of fine writing by
sentimental individuals, who, to judge by their effusions
stood in grave danger of bursting unless some way was
devised for giving vent totheirfeelings. Particularly non-
sensical is the suggestion that we ‘‘teach the child the
merit of leaving the dainty little recluse to fulfill the law

56 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

of its being’’. Suppose the child leaves the flower he de-
sires on its stalk; ten minutes later a ragged urchin un-
troubled by any law regarding ‘‘the dainty little recluse’’
calmly appropriates it. Exitall the effect of our moral dis-
course. The way to protect plantsis to adopt measures
that protect. With flowers as with people just laws well
enforced are the best safe-guards. If every effort were bent
upon securing laws to protect the wild flowers needing
protection, they would soon be in a fair way to escape ex-
termination. Without such laws, of what use is it that
nine hundred and ninety-nine pass an attractive flower if
the next comer picks it ?

SCARLET-FRUITED HORSE-GENTIAN.—In_ Britton’s
‘‘Manual of the Flora of the United States and Canada,’’
page 873, there is described a new species of Triosteum
by Mr. Bicknell, In 1900 a scarlet-fruited Triosteum was
found at the Forest of Arden, folhet, Ill. This was men-
tioned to several botanists, and considered merely a freak
in coloring of the yellow-fruited T. perfoliatum. Finding
the plants again this fall, 1904, I collected fruits for
planting but made no herbarium specimens. I would
like to ask if other readers of the BoTANisT have found
this form, and under what conditions, and also what is
the color of the fruit of T. angustifolium.—H. C. Skeels,
Joliet, Ll.

COLOR AND INSEcTs.—It often becomes a nice question
to decide whether color is of use to the flower in pollina-
tion or not. At first thought we might be inclined to say
that the colors of all flowers have been developed with
regard to visiting insects, but when we consider the
bright colors of some of the staminate and pistillate
cones of pines, none of which are insect pollinated and
none of whose ancestors ever have been, the use of the
color is not apparent. The catkins of the wind-pollinated
poplars are also often highly colored, especially in the
cottonwoods. We seem forced to the conclusion that in
many instances color is merely incidental, just as the sky
is blue and the grass green.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. BT

How FiLowers ATTRACT INSEcTs.—It is usually as-
sumed that color, odor and nectar are produced by plants
to attract insects to the blossoms, but that the shape of
flowers has reference entirely to making the insect
approach pollen and nectar in the proper way. The
assumptions in regard to the attractions of flowers, how-
ever, have not gone unchallenged and a great many
observations have yet to be made beforethe whole matter
will be settled. Some observers have asserted that color
is of no use whatever and that so long as flowers produce
nectar they will attract insects whether the petals are
removed or not. On the other hand, the fact that practi-
cally all showy flowers are insect pollinated indicates
that color must be of some value to the plant. Itis well
known that many insect-pollinated flowers do not pro-
duce nectar. In such cases the insects visit the flowers for
pollen. Many apparently odorless flowers attract num-
erous insects but the fact that human beings fail to find
odors in them is no reason for asserting that they are
odorless. There are light rays that we cannot see and
sound waves that we cannot hear, yet insects perceive
them. In all probability there is an immense number of
scents perceived only by insects. Possibly every flower is
fragrant to them. So odor is probably the chief means of
attracting the attention of insects, nectar and pollen the
objects that cause them to visit the flower, and color the
assistant that directs the insect at close quarters. We
must at this point take into consideration the difference
in color-perception found in various insects. Bees seem
to have the most acute sense and it is noticeable that the
flowers showing the greatest degree of specialization and
colored blue or violet are most often pollinated by bees.
The experiments that can be made along the lines here
indicated are endless, and anyone who has a flower
garden need never lack for occupation. The results
obtained, it need scarcely be added, will be of the very
highest scientific importance.

—eaOowrneee_eee_e—eeeeeeereesss

: scliteria I. 4

During the summer of 1904 Professor Hugo DeVries
of the University of Amsterdam, Holland, delivered a
series of lectures at the University of California in elucida-
tion of his now well-known mutation theory of the origin
of species and the subsequent publication of these lectures
by the Open Court Publishing Company of Chicago has
given American students a much desired opportunity to
carefully examine the evidence upon which his theory
rests. Darwin’s investigation of this subject left little
doubt in the mind of students as to the general way in.
which the various forms of animate creation have been.
produced but there has always existed some question as.
to whether natural selection, as he defined it, accounts
entirely for the great diversity of form 1n animaland plant.
life. DeVries thinks it does not and in the eight hundred,
pages of “Species and Varieties’’ which is essentially his
earlier work ‘‘ Die Mutationstheorie’’ with the statistics
omitted, he attempts to show that species and varieties.
have arisen from one another by a series of leaps or
mutations.

* m *

Every field botanist is familiar with the fact that the
individuals of certain species differ among themselves very
noticeably in such matters as hairiness, color, size, shape
of parts, etc., but it has remained for DeVries to show by
a great number of cultural experiments that these varia-
tions are constant and may be reproduced regularly from
seed. In addition hehas shown that many striking forms
may originate directly from other species without the
intergrading forms and the long periods of time that
Darwin supposed necessary. Several species have been
found to be constantly giving off such forms, most or all
of which die for want of proper surroundings. Since these
forms continue to reproduce themselves when cared for

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 59

they appear to have all the characteristics of recognized
species. They are not, however, the same as systematic
species, and DeVries accordingly calls them elementary
species. Such elementary species among our wild plants
will at once come to mind. The white form of the closed
gentian, the red flowered form of the horse gentian, the
green stemmed form of the common elder, the yellow
berried holly and the many smooth forms of hairy species
or the reverse may be cited as instances. Probably there
is nota reader of these lines who has not at some time
observed one or more of these elementary species. Several
have been described in this magazine and when such forms
become more familiar, elementary species hunting will
become more fascinating than other plant collecting. One
of the most astonishing facts brought out by the cultiva-
tion of various plants is that many of them will produce
the same mutations again and again indicating that the
characters of the elementary species are latent in the
parent species. The closed gentian well illustrates this
idea. In almost every locality where this plant grows
some plants will be found bearing white flowers. These
come true from seed and may also be produced by sowing
seed of the blue form, each sowing being likely to produce
a tew white flowered plants which thereafter are easily
reproduced from seed. The ability to produce white
flowers, then, is a latent character in the closed gentian.
Not all species are supposed to produce mutations—only
the younger and unfixed types are thought to do so—but
in some species the mutations are numerous, in the case of
Draba verna amounting to more than two hundred
distinct forms.
* a *

It will thus be seen that the systematic species is
regarded by DeVries as a composite of elementary species.
Ordinarily the characters of the latter may be blended in
a single individual of the systematic species but by culti-
vation and selection each elementary species may be iso-
lated. The reason we do not find many of these elemen-

60 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

tary species in nature is doubtless due to the inhospitable
surroundings in which the seedlings find themselves; but
that some do persist, is shown by the double flowers,
dwarf plants, unusual colored fruits, etc., that are con-
stantly being reported. As might be expected the annuals
usually perish and leave no sign and it 1s from the peren-
nials that the greatest number of uncultivated examples
may be drawn. |

* es % .

Those who have persistently objected to the making
of new species from single variant plants will doubtless
hail the new theory with great delight. It will be oe)
now to show that many of these so-called ‘‘new species’’
are merely elementary species, and this fact alone Seal
deter some of the hair splitting botanists from rushing
into print with species that are almost certain to he
shown to be unfounded later. Had this theory been
announced earlier we feel sure we would have been spared
the infliction of the multitudes of ‘‘new species’ in Anten-
naria, Crategus, Viola, Aster and Sisyrinchium. What
to call these elementary species seems still undecided. It
will only confuse matters to give them binomials. It.
would seem only proper that each should have the generic
and specific names of the parent species and in addition a
single name to distinguish it. This is practically the way
conservative botanists have named such forms, but now.
that they have the weight of the mutation theory in their
favor it is probable that many recent species will soon be
reduced to their proper rank.

*

‘Not the least olen point about “Species fe
Varieties’”’ is the very lucid style in which it is written.
The general reader will be able to understand it easily.
Every botanist and botanizer would do well to read it
and all who can should own it. The price is five dollars. |

The Hmateur Waturalist.

MAGAZINE that treats in an interesting way the various phases of nature

fm study, confining itself to no one branch but aiming at accuracy in all subjects

treated, is the position occupied by THE AMATEUR NATURALIST. In its

columns the nature student will find himself confined to no one subject, but from time
to time will be published interesting articles relating to all.

In no other magazine will the beginner, especially, find such an abundant and
varied store of information. Nota technical article has yet appeared in its columns,
and not one that was dull or uninteresting, and yet accuracy has been maintained
and is one of the prominent features.

That there is a demand for a publication of this character the constant and
steady increase of our number of subscribers is sufhicient evidence. Does it appeal to
you? The numbers already published contain about twenty articles each, besides an
equal number of short but interesting notes,in addition tothe editorial. We subjoin
the titles of a few of the more prominent articles in the first volume:

Exterminated by man,—The plan of a flower,—Flowers that are not flowers,—
Visit to the Big Trees,—Fruits and vegetables,—Curious trees,—Gems of the United
States,—Mineral hunter’s paradise,—The discoverer of radium,—Quartz and quartz
crystals,— Porto Rican minerals,—Rubbies and sapphires,—Some giants among small
things,—The seasons and the birds,—Winter birds in Maine,-Hummingbirds,—
Sources of colors,—How a toad sheds his skin,—Deep sea fish,—Flint rmplements and
weapons,—The Colorado River,—Sound in the clouds,—Problems in modern astron-
omy,—Life on other planets,—Bird-song studies,—Date-leaf boat of Arabia,—Electric
fish,—Habits of the scorpion,—The ocean’s floor,—The milk-weed butterfly,—Arctic
travel in winter,—New York City minerals,—Antiquity of the rose.

These and scores besides make up the contents of the numbers already published,
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THEAMERICAN
~ BOTANIST.

CON 'TEHN TS.

MH PINKUAZAEMALS 68 ES

STUDY OF OAK TREES NEAR. CHICAGO,
Mary Lee Van Hook.

: OUR SUMMER'S DIVERSIONS,
H, A. SHIRLEY.

VARIOUS LOOSE-STRIFES, - -
Dr. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILrEy,.

BOTANY FOR REGINNERS—XIX, -

RABBITS AND POTATO BEETLES AS
BOTANISTS (a SS

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A Trip to Mount Katahdin. |

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Books Recommended

In this department we shall, from time to time, recom-
mend books that to us seem of special value to readers of
this journal.

Ii1.—Fern Books.

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($1.08); if a popular handbook for Eastern America select either Parson's ‘‘How
to Know the Ferns’’ ($1.63), Water’s ‘‘Ferns’’ ($3.34) or Clute’s ‘‘Our Ferns in-.
Their Haunts'’ ($2.15). Parson’s book is well written but the keys are difficult,
Water’s book has two technical -keys and is illustrated with many photographs,
Clute’s book has more text than either, has illustrated keys, colored plates and the
225 other illustrations are by an artist of ability. The real fern lover needs all
three. Eastman’s ‘‘New England Ferns"’ ($1.25) isa new book that is useful but
not so comprehemsive as the others, while Dodge’s ‘‘Ferns and Fern Allies of
New England’’ (50 cts.) is a complete little technical mannal.~ Clute’s ‘‘Fern
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identify them, Useful to take into the field.

For the above books, or any others, address,

WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., Binghamton, N. Y.

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AZALEA.

TNE AMERICAN BUTANIST.

Vor. VIII. BINGHAMTON, N. Y., APRIL, 1905. No. 4.

THE PINK AZALEA.

HE earliest spring flowers, heralding a milder season,
attract more attention than would probably be their

due were they to bloom later in the year when flowers are
more abundant. When flowers are everywhere it requires
an imposing blossom to make a special impression and
yet throughout the summer certain flowers, either by
their numbers, unusual size or brilliancy, stand out from
among their fellows so decidedly as to mark a certain
season for their own. We may speak thus of the dande-
lion season, the daisy season, the bluet season and so on
for many more. None are more distinctly marked, how-
ever, than the one to which the subject of this sketch may
well give a name—the pink azalea season. Until the plant.
begins to unfold its fragrant blossoms it is not at alla
conspicuous, but in its favorite haunts the blooming
season 1s something to be remembered. Those who have
seen a few straggling specimens in bloom can form no
adequate idea of its beauty when flowering in immense
numbers along some chosen hillside. Although often
called swamp azalea it does not appear especially restrict-
ed to swamps; infact the dtyish hillsides seem much more
to its liking. But wherever it grows, its strong fragrance
soon makes its presence known. At the height of its.
season the whole country-side is flooded with it and it is
one of the few flowers that calls the non-botanical public
to the woods. Many observers have testified to the fact
that there is great variation in the intensity of the
fragrance, and some have supposed that this is due to a
confusion of two distinct species. These latter maintain
that the common azalea (Azalea nudiflora) is but faintly
fragrant and that another species, to which the name of

62 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

Azalea canescens has been given, is the really fragrant
plant. More information upon this point is still desirable.
In general appearance the second species is much like A.
nudiflora, the principal difference being that its leaves are
broader and canescent or densely white pubescent beneath
and the corolla tube is glandular. The stamens also are
said to be less exserted. It would be an excellent thing if
observers would make a further study of the shrubs this
year with a view to settling the question of fragrance.

STUDY OF OAK TREES NEAR CHICAGO.
BY MARY LEE VAN HOOK.

N this region oak trees, undoubtedly, have the supre-
macy, though other trees are sufficiently numerous to
attract some attention, especially in ravines and on the
slopes. Evena few miles away from the Lake, where the
soil is richer, elms, cottonwoods, and maples grow well;
but here near the Lake oak trees control the uplands

almost to the exclusion of other kinds.

White, swamp-white, red, black and bur-oaks are the
varieties oftenest seen, though there are afew scarlet oaks
as well. The white oak is the dominating species—rather
a surprising fact when one considers the immense number
of acorns eaten by squirrels and jay-birds. One squirrel
can eat at one meal at least twenty acorns, often more,
and he usually chooses the white oak or bur-oak variety.
These acorns are large and the sweetest of any, with a
decided chestnut flavor; no wonder they are chosen.
There are two kinds of squirrels here, red and grey, many
of each, and the groves are full of blue-jays, so that the
consumption of acorns during autumn and winter months
must make an appreciable difference in the number of
young trees for the following spring. However, squirrels
and jay-birds both have the trick of burying nuts, a habit
which amounts to planting trees since they never find all
that they bury; and so in celebrating every day as Arbor
Day they perhaps make upforthe number of acorns which
they eat.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 63

White oaks in this vicinity are from fifty to seventy-
five feet in height, though the tree attains a growth of
one hundred and fifty feet in the finest specimens I believe.
The branches are oftenest at right angles and are fewer
than in other species. The bark is grey, almost white
sometimes, and is inclined to be scaly. The leaves, five to
seven inches in length, have usually about nine entire
lobes slanting somewhat from the midrib. On different
trees the leaves vary in size and marginal cutting, the
smaller leaf of the two distinct kinds having the deeper
cutting. The acorn varies in size but is usually about an
inch long, oblong, and set in a shallow, smooth cup; it is,
as has been said, very good to eat.

‘The swamp-white oak resembles the white oak in the
color of the bark and appearance of the acorn without the
cup, which in the tormer species is fringed. The branches
of the tree are gnarled and do not grow with the regular-
ity of the white, their outline making more of an oval.
The bark of the swamp-white oak is often so scaly that
one could mistake it for a shelbark hickory until the other
points are noticed. The leaves vary is size from five to
eight inches and are obovate with wavy margins.

The red oak grows side by side with the other oaks
but is oftenest in groves made up of its own kind. The
tree can be distinguished by its bark which is smooth with
black patches and streaks, especially on the lower part of
the trunk. There are two kinds of leaves, ‘the lobes of
which terminate in spines; the smaller form is hard to
distinguish from the leaves of the black oak, though it is
less glossy and thicker in texture. The acorns, the largest
of those of any oaks, are decidedly red and bitter.

The black oak has rough bark which is usually very
black. The lobes of the leaves, about nine in number, like
those of the red, terminate in spines. The acorns are
small in flat cups; they are dark colored, sometimes
striped.

Like the swamp-oak the limbs of the burr-oak are very
much gnarled. The leaves are large, nine inches long,

64 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

often, and the entire lobes are cut almost to the midrib in
one or more places. The acorn is an inch or more long
and is set in a deep cup which resembles a burr, being
covered with bristly scales. The acorn is rather sweet.
All of these species of oak have winter buds that are
very small, seldom more than a quarter of an inch long.
All are deciduous trees, yet most of the varieties men-
tioned, especially the white oak, retains many leaves
during the winter months. Are the buds of the oak so
much more delicate than those of other trees that they
must be protected by the old leaves, or is it simply in keep-
ing with the sturdy character of the whole tree that the
petioles of oak leaves are tough and well attached to the
branches? After all hasbeen said about the identification
of oak trees it yet remains a difficult and sometimes
impossible task because of the tendency of different forms
to approach each other in the intermingling of the species.
Lakeside, IIl.

OUR SUMMER’S DIVERSIONS.
BY 'H. A. SHERLEY.
HE quaint old Moravian town of Salem in North Car-
olina possessed alittle group of botanists in the early
part of the last century, one of whom, von Schweinitz, is
remembered the world over by botanists from his having
discovered over twelve hundred new species of fungi and
from the enormous personal collection of flora that he
made. While residing in Salem from 1812 to 1825 he
made a list of 1439 species of wild plants collected by him-
self in a radius of thirty miles, but last summer proved
that there were still new things in this field to be found,
even by a novice.

My friend and I had been walking occasionally, just
for the pleasure of walking, taking interest in the mistle-
toe, umbrella-trees, the Woodwardia angustifolia ferns
and things noticeably out of the common, when our
attention was called especially tothe orchid family. Who
amongst amateur botanists has not felt the fascination

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 65

that this most interesting family has? As the summer
went on nearly every week a new variety to us was found
and carried home in great glee to have its name confirmed
by the two older friends whose age prohibited the long
tramps but whose interest inthe finds was stimulating to
the highest degree.

Once a week we took a walk, starting in the morning,
carrying our lunch with us and going wherever fancy
carried us. Generally it was nightfall which brought us
back but sometimes it must be confessed that the lunch
did not hold out and hunger brought us back in time for
supper. What good times we did have. Sometimes the
entire day would be spent investigating what some little
glen had for us. There was one day when we feasted on
wild black-caps—friends had to be shown the bushes to be
convinced of their wildness—and the never-to-be-forgotten
juicy yellow plums that were just at the stage when they
melted in one’s mouth. I can almost taste the delicious
flavor now. Another day came the unexpected sight of a
great blue heron and its beautiful pure-white young birds
and we will surely not forget killing three copperhead
snakes where we had just eaten our dinner. C— had just
dipped his head inthe branch when a minute after the first
copperhead appeared from under a rock at the very spot,
as if to see what had been disturbing his quiet. In fact,
each day had some little adventure to distinguish it, to
say nothing of the ‘‘treasures’’ which were found every
week. In the line of mushrooms alone two hundred and
seven varieties were identified during the season and we
have often wondered if this is an unusual experience. Of
the orchidsfound last summer the Tipularia was much the
most abundant. Gray writes this down ‘‘very scarce,”’
but we found itin every direction and decided that it must
have changed its habits or that it was simply local. Usual-
ly the Aplectrum with its Adam-and-Eve corms was found
nearby. When the solitary leaf, which these two orchids
produce each year after blooming, appeared we were
always bothered to remember which was which. The

66 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

Tipularia being veined, with rich purple coloring beneath,
while the Aplectrum’s is simply green on both sides.

The Corallorhiza odontorhiza was another species
which appeared in every dry woods towards autumn. Its
near relative, the Hexalectris, was only found twice but it
seemed to usthe most beautiful of all of our orchids, while
the circumstances of our first finding it will always be re-
called with the astonished shouts of joy by which it was
greeted.

The Spiranthes cernua and S. gracilis were both found.
It was in November that we came across a meadow quite
white with the blossoms of the ‘‘ladies’ tresses’? and a
large handful was soon gathered. They possessed a deli-
cate fragrance and everyone who saw them exclaimed at
their beauty massed together, many taking them for lilies
of the valley. The Goodyera pubescens was to be found
in every woods, but the Ca/apogon and the delicate
Pogonia ophioglossoides were only found in one locality
although they grew plentitully in that one place. The
Pogonia verticillata grew quite by itself and was only
found on this one wooded bank. The modest Orchis
spectabilis grew by a favorite stream, although one plant
surprised us by making its appearance half way up an
intensely steep hill. The Cypripedium acaule had not
been found here for years but we discovered just one sol1-
tary specimen in a pine woods far from any habitation
and the Cypripedium pubescens were found still later,
farther yet from the haunts of men. The one twayblade
was found so long after flowering that only another sea-
son can determine its name.

Then the Habenarias; the H. tridentata was found
growing beside every branch where it was protected from
high water. H. virescens was only occasional, but H.
clavellata was more common and H. lacera was some-
times found. A most glorious sight was the little sphag-
num bog covered with yellow fringed orchises which we
found in July. HA. ciliaris and H. cristata were growing
side by side and the distinction between the two was plain

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 67

to any observer. They grew in such profusion that we
gathered great bunches and then no one could have
detected their absence. Itwas trulya sight to delight the
heart of a flawer-lover and one never-to-be-forgotten.

At the close of the summer we found we had exceeded
the list of orchids found by von Schweinitz and best of all
we actually found the Schweinitzia odorata, named for
von Schweinitz. This is a member of the Monotropa
genus. There was just one dried specimen of it left in
town and as no plant had been found within the memory
of anyone now living we felt that our summer had been
successful indeed.

Salem, N. C.

VARIOUS LOOSE-STRIFES.
BY DR. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY.

MONG the plants most often sent to the writer for

identification is the purple loose-strife (Lythium

Salicaria). Here, in Rhode Island, the plant, though

scattered over the state, is no where abundant. I have

seen it in Little Compton, Apponaug and South Kingston.

In the rich Hackensack Meadows and throughout Orange

and Putman Counties, in New York, it grows super-

abundantly. Often blooming, as in the Hackensack

Meadows, with Hibiscus moscheutos, it forms a gorgeous
carpet.

It has had the rare good fortune to attract the atten-
tion of very noted students. Those who have at all con--
sidered cross-pollination, one of the most interesting lines
of modern research, will recall what use Darwin, Muller,
Kerner and others make of it.

This is owing to its showy flowers which are tri-
morphic; that is, they show three different lengths of
stamens and styles in the neighboring flowers. The more
diverse the reaction among these, the more potent and
vigorous 1s the resultant offspring.

The plant usually has twelve stamens or twice the
number of the petals, six of them longer than the others.

68 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

The plant is more or less downy, tall, with lanceolate
leaves, opposite or whorled—or even scattered—and
cordate at base.

Our swamp loose-strife (Decodon verticillatus or Neswa
of our younger days) is very common. It has willowy
stems which bend over the water and expand at the end
into a spongy, thickened mass of much physiological
interest. These stems arefourto six angled. The axillary,
purple flowers are tri-morphic as in the nearly related
Lythium and for the same reason.

It is thus interesting to note how plants, separated by
wide oceans, have evolved the same habit. Relationship,
however, would point to the fact that they were not
always so geographically dissevered. It is almost incon-
ceivable that plants of the same family should have been
independently created at these wide intervals. If related,
as there is no doubt, it is natural to look for the same or
similar habits.

The other plants, popularly known as loose-strifes,
have no relation to those described above. We find these
recurring instances in one flower language of the duplica-
tion of names. Scientific apellations, in these latter days,
are no more stable. We must expect incessant and often
unjustifiable charge.

The yellow loose-strifes belong to the primrose family
and are members of two closely related genera, Lysima-
chia and Steironema. To these, perhaps, may be added
Naumbergia, the old Lysimachin thyrsiflora, which
presents some peculiarities separating it from the others.

The four-leaved loose-strife is one of the flowers of our

‘lull-period,”’ coming after the rush of May and early
June. Itis, from its abundance, the most familiar, unless
we include the little ‘‘money’’—Lysimachia nummularia,
which escapes from gardens and spreads widely. The
others, some with axillary, others with racemose flowers,
and all pretty, we see throughout the summer. They add
very much to the beauty of a summer bouquet.

Some of the species propogate, partly by bulblets

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 69

which formed in the axils of the leaves, drop off, sink in
water, and next spring come forth as new plants.

Brown University, Providence, R. I.

BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS—XIX.

ORDER II—THE GRAMINALES.

The grasses and sedges which form the great order
Graminales are at once so common and so characteristic
in form, that they are readily recognized by even those
who make no claim to botanical knowledge. To recog-
nize a member of the order, however, is one thing and to
identify the species is quite another as many a young
botanist has learned after much time and labor. The
flowering parts upon which identification chiefly depends
are so little like ordinary flowers that the young student
scarcely knows where to begin, and he usually rests with
calling them simply grasses or sedges, as the case may be.
Although grasses and sedges are much alike upon super-
ficial examination, it is usually not difficult to distinguish
between the two. The grasses generally have cylindrical
hollow stems—or culms as they are called in this family—
while the sedges have three cornered solid stems. Along
with this difference in structure goes a curious difference in
usefulness to man, the grasses being of the greatest value
as food while the sedges are of no use whatever. Even
grazing animals avoid them.

THE GRASSES (GRAMINE4).

The grasses form one of the largest of plant families.
About three hundred genera and thirty-five hundred
species are known. The group has a world-wide distribu-
tion, and while the Tropics contain the greater number of
species, temperate regions more than overbalance this by
the great development of individuals which there grow so
thickly as to form. a compact sod:or turf over large areas.
With the exception of a few species in the Tropics which,
like the bamboos, take on a tree-like form the members of
the group are herbaceous and mostly perennial. The
immense importance of the grassesto man may be realized

70 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

when it is remembered that all the cereals, such as oats,
barley, rye, wheat, rice and corn, are grasses as well as
sugar cane, sorghum, broom corn, millet, timothy and the
many forage species. Only one genus (Lo//ium) is known
to contain poisonous species.

Although grasses as a rule have stems that are solid
only at the joints, there are some exceptions to this as in
Indian corn and sugar cane where the stems are solid
throughout. The leaves are in two ranks and usually
clearly divided into a sheath enclosing the base of the long
imternode and a narrow blade extending out fromit. At
the juncture of blade and sheath there is usually a scale-
like out-growth parallel with the internode called the
ligule. This is a very characteristic feature of grasses.
The sheath 1s generally split down to the base on the side
opposite the blade but occasionally itis entire and tubular.

In the flowers may be detected a general resemblance
tothe ordinary three-parted flower ofthe monocotyledons
but some of the parts are reduced or wanting and this
coupled with the presence of various chaffy scales and
bracts make trouble for those who would identify the
plants. The plan of the flower may be better understood
if itis known that the spikelets of grass flowers are com-
parable to a raceme with its bracts. The empty scales,
called glumes, at the base ot the spikelets are inthe nature
of true bracts and the chaff-like scale called a palet imme-
diately subtending the flower represents a bracteole.
There is a perianth usually of two small members called
lodicules, and occasionally a third member is present
making the three-parted perianth. Within these are
usually found three stamens though in the bamboos there
are six. The pistilis a single carpel which ripens but one
seed. This seed, closely invested by the ovary wall forms
the fruit known asa caryopsis. Occasionally the ovary
wall becomes succulent, forming a drupe-like fruit. In the
genus Melocanna according to Rendle, it reaches a length
of several inches and is edible. In some of the bamboos
the walls of the ovary become hardened and nut-like.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. br gs |

‘The grasses are all wind pollinated and modified for
this purpose by having the anthers lightly balanced on
long slender filaments, while the pistil produces two styles
with long feathery stigmas that easily catch any pollen
floating by. ‘Stamens and pistils are usually borne in the
same flower, but cross-pollination is easily effected by one
set of organs ripening before the other. In some species,
as Indian corn, stamens and pistils are borne on different
parts of the plant. Corn-silk is made up of the numerous
styles and stigmas. A few species produce cleistogamous
flowers. In Amphicarpum the fertile spikelets are borne
on slender runners at the base of the stems.

The grasses spread rapidly by runners which push out
from the base of the plant and after burrowing in the soil
for some distance turn upwards and become erect stems.
In this way a compact mat-like turf is soon formed. A
few lay up stores of starch in tuber-like under-ground
stems. The stemsthemselves are often richin silica which
makes them exceeding hard.

RABBITS AND POTATO BEETLES AS BOTANISTS.

BY MARIA L. OWEN.

ee Miss Gertrude Jekyll speak first. In her “Wall

and Water Gardens” she says, ‘‘Rabbits seem to
favour the Crucifere. When first grew the Zthionemas,
forgetting their relationship to Jberis (candytuft) I put
them in a place accessible to rabbits; the rabbit being the
better botanist, recognized them at once, much to my
loss.””, Now my own experience.

One summer day walking round my little flower beds
I saw a potato beetle on a trumpet-tongue (Salpiglossis)
plant. It passed through my mind that he had got lost,
for there was no tomato, potato or any other plant of
that family near, and after humanely and effectively stop-
ping his mischief for all time, I thought no more of the
matter. But the next day I saw another of the little
striped pests on the same plant; then I roused up and
said ‘‘This means something,” so after treating him like

(2 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

his predecessor I came into the house, consulted my
‘“Field, Forest and Garden Botany,” and found that the
Salpiglossis, although in the figwort family, is in a section
of that order intermediate between the figworts and the
nightshades. This was news to me, but the httle Dory-
phoras and their ancestors had known it, I doubt not,
since potato beetles and trumpet-tongues were first
evolvedupon earth. They knew theirtribes and sub-tribes
so much better than I did, that I felt almost sorry I had
put such botanists out of life.
Springfield, Mass.

CHLOROPHYLL.

At this lovely season of the year, when foliage of infin-
ite shades, and verdure in all its vernal freshness, clothe
the landscape, with an indescribable charm, it probably
seldom occurs to the beholder that this universal green-
ness represents the first and most vital essential of his own
existence, it being practically the one and only vehicle for
the transformation of solar activity into potential life.
All life is dependent, directly or indirectly, upon vegeta-
tion, and the old saying that ‘‘all flesh is grass’”’ is abso- .
lutely and literally true if we accept grass as the symbol
of vegetation generally. The meat-eaters are always de-
pendent upon vegetable-feeding animals, as a moments’
consideration of our own case will clearly show, and hence
we are easily led to the conclusion that the entire realm of
organic life is based on the capacity of plants to grow.

We next find that all plants, except those which are
practically parasitic ones, or fungi, which feed upon plant
tissues dead or alive, and thus none the less exist at the
expense of the green ones, can only form their foliage under
the influences of sunlight, direct or diffused. Growth
under the influence of electric or other artificial lightforms
no exception to this rule, for we have only to investigate
their source to find the sunlight as its origin since one and
all kinds are obtained by the consumption, of coal, oils,
&c., which are merely the stored-up products through the

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. gf

vegetation of past ages, of the sunshine of their time.
Directly or indirectly, therefore, we always come at last
to the sun as the impelling vital force, and in connection
therewith we equally invariably find that this force can
only find vital expression through the vegetation which
clothes the world with verdure; naturally, therefore, we
find a certain synchronism to exist between cause and
effect; that is, between vital vegetative activity,and solar
influenee, especially as solar light and solar heat are so
intimately associated, and the heat 1s also a factor in leaf
development.

The next thing te consider is how the sunshine is
enabled to do its vital work within the leaves, and
although it is impossible for usto define the actual “how”’
we absolutely know that the work is entirely done by the
green coloring matter itself, the so-called chlorophyll,
which is really the simple Greek of leaf color. Within the
partially transparent cells which form the fabric of all
leaves this coloring matter exists as an infinite number of
tiny green grains, which, under the influence of light are
enabled not only to multiply, but in some subtle way to
break up or decompose the carbonic acid gas of the air
which is absorbed by the leaves through their pores, and
such salts as may be contributed from the soil through
the roots; and also to recombine their elements in infinite
ways to form woody and leafy tissue, and, in short, build
up the plant on wider and wider lines.

If we pause a moment to consider the infinite variety
of flavors, odors, and chemical products which exist in
the plant world, and remember that all of these, nutriti-
ous, noxious, or even deadly poisonous, are fashioned by
these little green grains, and that every leaf in the fair
prospect we may be enjoying is an actual and busy labo-
ratory engaged in this varied work, our conception of the
wonders of Nature, and especially of the wonders of
chlorophyll, cannot fail to be immensely widened. There
is, indeed, absolutely nothing else in creation, nothing so
pervasive and so essential to life, which can be compared

74. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

to it; and the more we investigate, the greater becomes:
our wonder and sense of reverence at the creative power
which underlhes it.

From the more microscopic forms of plant life to the
giant Sequoia, it is the tiny green grains which, in con-
junction with the formative cell, the twin wonders of
creation, enable them to exist and reproduce themselves;
and, as we have already indicated, in those lowly forms of
plant life, the fungi, which manage toexist without their
actual presence within their substance, they can only do
so by feeding, as carnivorous animals do, on organic
matter previously shaped by chlorophyll, and consequent -
ly charged with nutritive elements. The green’ leaf, in
short, forms the link ’twixt solar force and life itself, and
in viewing the wide expanse of verdure of hill and dale
and field and forest in their spring and summer garb, we
are the actual witnesses of the wondrous process of trans-
formation upon which our very existence and that of life
i every other form, is absolutely dependent.—Charles T.
Druery 1n Journal of Horticulture.

Oa a ee a a aa

“4
Note and Corsarmment. ie

—oro—S"

ee

WANTED.—Short notes of interest to the general bot-
anist are always in demand for this department. Our
readers are invited to make this the place of publication
for their botanical items.

NITROGEN FIxInG BACTERIA.—Examine the roots of
the nearest thrifty clover plant and they will be found to
bear numerous small, rounded nodules not much larger
than pin heads. These are the homes of bacteria, species
of fungi so small that notwithstanding the minuteness of
the nodules, each one may contain a million or more
individuals. The bacteria seem to have set upa sort of
partnership with clovers and other leguminous plants and

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 75

in return for a habitation on their roots provide them
with nitrogen which they are able to obtain from the air.
Although all ordinary plants require nitrogen, they are
unableto secure it fromthe air without the aid of bacteria
and the partnerships which clovers have formed are very
much to their advantage. Until a comparatively recent
period little attention has been paid to these minute
plants, but renewed study indicates that possibly a
majority of the leguminous plants have their own species
of bacteria and will not thrive with any other. It has
long been known that in some of the States of the Middle
West the red clover ordinarily will not grow in certain
soils and it is only lately that it has been ascertained that
this is because its favorite bacteria are missing. Know-
ing this, all the farmer has to do to get a good crop is to
obtain some soil from an old clover field and inoculate his
soil with it. Thereafter he may raise clover as long as he
pleases, but should he raise other crops on the land for
half a dozen years in succession, the bacteria wili die out
and the field must be inoculated again before he can raise
another clover crop. Other legumes are not so particular
and in most cases either have sufficient bacteria attached
to their seeds to enable them to get a start or they find
the right bacteria inthe soil, possibly the kind that affects
some native plant. The alfalfa is another of the species
that is a bit particular about its bacteria and so will not
grow in every soil. It is interesting to know, however,
that the common sweet clover is partial to the same
species of bacteria, and that wherever sweet clover grows
there willalfalfa grow,also. Fields in which sweet clover
is not found may be inoculated with soil from a sweet
clover patch and then will produce abundant crops of

alfalfa. In this case both the clover and alfalfa are —
imported plants and the bacteria seems to have been
imported with them but while the sweet clover is able to
look out for itself and spreads rapidly, alfalfa is slower to
take possession of new soil. Possibly the clover seed
offers a better opportunity for the lodgement of bacteria.

76 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

ComMMoN NAMES AND GENERA.—It has often beer
pointed out that nearly all the common names of plants
refer to the genus rather than to the species. Familiar
instances are found in such words as violet, buttercup,
rose, willow, clover and hawthorne. All this indicates
that the common names of plants were given ata time
when the genus and not the species was the unit of classi-
fication.

MarSH PLANTS IN Dry PLACEs,—Prot. Isaac Bayley
Balfour told the Botanical Society of America at a recent
meeting that many supposedly marsh plants are really
drouth plants, because, though rooted in water, the loca-
tion is physiologically dryto them. Because of some sub-
stance in the water, the roots are unable to take up the
moisture that is all around them. ‘It sounds paradoxi-
eal,’ he said, ‘‘that a soaking peat soil is to plants in
respect to water like a desert sand, a salt strand, a tufa,a
half frozen loam or a tree bark. Yet all are physiologi-
cally dry to the plant.’’ This explains why marsh plants
can thrive in dry, sandy garden soil. They are able to get
as much moisture there as in the swamps.

CLEISTOGAMOUS FLOWERS.—The editor of Nature
Notes, commenting on a note in our journal regarding
cleistogamous flowers in the sundew, points out that
while the term cleistogene commonly connotes a reduc-
tion of parts a cleistogamous flower is not necessarily a
flower with reduced parts for cleistogene means simply
‘‘produced closed.’”’ Any flower that does not open,
therefore, may be termed cleistogamous. A remarkable
transition between showy and cleistogamous flowers
may usually be noted in the Canada violet (Viola Cana-
densis) which early in the season produces showy flowers
only, but as the weather becomes warmer the showy
petals decrease in size until the flowers are scarcely notice-
able. The plant continues blooming, however, and when
the cool days of autumn come begins to produce petals
again. It would seem that all the cleistogamous violet
flow ers have originated in this way.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. Ch

Mip WINTER VIOLETS.—Viola odorata the original
form of the species, single, blue and fragrant, makes an
extremely interesting winter plant indoors if given suit-
able quarters. The plants are quite hardy but can not
endure the high temperature of living rooms. On the
other hand they delight in a comparatively low tempera-
ture. Unheated rooms, having windows with a southern
exposure, where sunlight is ample and the night tempera-
ture does not go below the freezing point, offer ideal
winter conditions for these fair little plants. In such
places they will flourish and reward one with a wealth of
bloom and fragrance for the little caretaking they require.
—J. Ford Sempers, Aikin, Md.

PLANTS WITH Noppinc Tips.—In the plant kingdom
are to be found many peculiar adaptations. One of the
most interesting is the habit which some species have of
keeping the growing tip curved downward during the
period of development or until the stem has attained its
growth forthe season. This curving of thetip of the stem
appears much like the archcommonly developed in sprout-
ing seedlings but must be for a different purpose. The
nodding of the growing tip is strikingly seen in such
plants as Solidgo canadensis and Asimina triloba. Some
species of a genus maynod while others show no sign of a
curve in the stem tip. Thus Gaura parviflora nods very
strongly while Gaura biennis, it appears, does not nod at
all. In most cases the curve is quite rigid but in some the
nodding is merely the result of the flexibility of the stem.
A few species have the tips nod at night but become nearly
straight in the daytime. Whatever the cause or factor
which induces plants to nod, there is probably no doubt
but that the habit is a means of protection to the delicate
terminal bud.—Ohio Naturalist.

ORE tS ee a

Sooner or later there usually comes to the student of
botany, unless he possesses an ample fortune, the question
whether or not botany can be made to pay. It is not
that he is inclined to measure the delights ot botany by
the single standard of dollars and cents but that he dis-
covers that dollars and cents must be taken into account.
He finds that to give more of his time to botany will
encroach upon the hours devoted to business and it is but
natural that he should query whether botany and busi- '
ness cannot be combined to the material advantage of
both. The answer to the question, however, will doubt-
less read different ways to different people and in no case
canit be an unreserved yes or no. It rather depends upon
individual circumstances and what one means by making
botany pay.

* *

%

Practically there is no money in botany in the sense of
a considerable income over and above expenses. The
amount of good hard ‘‘digging”’ that is required to make
a successful botanist if applied to the study of law, medi-
cine, civil engineering or similar studies would yield an
income many times as great as the average botanist
enjoys. The best paid man of this class in the United
States receives a salary of less than six thousand dollars
while botanists with salaries of three thousand dollars
annually are so rare astobe curiosities. Such salaries are
seldom paid to those outside of the larger Universities, a
thousand dollar salary being usually considered a good
one, elsewhere. A large number of teaching botanists
probably receive less. These figures, therefore, need only
to be compared with those for other professions to show
that botany does not pay in the pecuniary sense of the
word. Any skilled mechanic cando as wellor better than
the average botanist and at the same time be under less
expense for clothes and other necessaries of life.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 719

There are, however, other compensations in the life of
a botanist. To those who care for the approbation of
their fellows the honor of being connected with some great
University or Botanical Garden, or a position in some
department of the Government counts for much; while to
those who delight in botany for its own sake the prospect
of doing exactly what one likes best to do and being paid
for doing it, is particularly pleasant. Moreover, while the
botanist is usually a very busy individual, it is his avoca-
tions rather than his vocation that makes him so. His
duties generally leave him considerable leisure for other
things while his situation among books and specimens
allows him to employ his time to the greatest advantage.
It is this last feature that makes the life of a botanist so
fascinating to the plodding beginner who, perhaps, is
obliged to snatch the few minutes a day he gives to
botany from hoursthat should be devoted to other things.
He may have the greatest inclination for further study,
but lacking the botanist’s leisure he must forego it.

* *
¥

Commercially, therefore, botany can scarcely be said
to pay, but measured by any other standard it does pay
and it pays well. After all, the commercial standard is
not a true standard. Are any of the really desirable
things of life measured by it? Can we place a money
value on friendship, or religion, or health, or youth, or the
capacity to enjoy good books, music and fine scenery ?
No one would exchange these things for money though
many with money would willingly purchase them if they
could. These things and many others pay us a vast
interest annually, but not in mere coin and it is in this
latter sense that botany pays us best and most accept-
ably. A holiday spent in field or wood gives pleasure in
proportion as the flowers have a significance. The
unbotanical are constantly deterred from the examination
of attractive blossoms through dread of being poisoned,
or because of superstitions connected with the flowers,
while the botanizer sees new beauties at every step.

8O THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

Indeed, from the very nature of the subject, botany is like
ly to pay back better returns for the time spent upon it
than most other studies. There are few pursuits, the ob-
jects of which combine fragrance, delicate hues, marvelous.
forms and graceful habits, and in the study of these one
may profitably and pleasantly spend the spare hours ofa

lifetime.

% *
*

The botanist may be described as a person interested
in plants for the sake of the science, while the botanizer
may be said to be interested in the science for the sake of
the plants. Nor does the latter title carry anything of
reproach with it, rather the reverse. Certainly the one
who gets the most genuine pleasure out of botany is the
botanizer. Hehas no special problems to bother him, but
in his leisure moments—holidays, Sunday afternoons and
during vacations—saunters countryward to botanize.
He knows the names of the showy flowers, at least, and
he knows when they bloom and where to find them. He
it is that brings.in the first arbutus, and later can lead
you by the most direct path to the haunts of the orchids
and wild lilies. He knows when the first young winter-
greens are up and when the mandrakes are ripe. For him
the woods hold many a toothsome morsel from the berries
on vine and brier to treasures underground—crinkle-root,
ginseng, ground-nut, sweet cicely and cucumber root.
His aim is to know more of the secrets of wood and
meadow and he has use for the botanist’s labors only as
they add tohis available store of knowledge. The botan-
ist desires to accumulate exact knowledge about plant
structures, plant relations and plant processes; the bot-
anizer prefers a knowledge of the colors, fragrance and
forms of flowers, where they grow when they bloom and
what they are good for.

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we Sf aw yO Rew Oe! EN SN

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ENGL 8:

THEAMERICAN
BOTANIST.

OONTTHN TS.
10 |
| PEA-FLOWERS IN SUMMER, - - - 81
CENTS | Dr. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY.
i SOME FAMILIAR POT-HERBS, - - 88
A WILLARD N. CLUTE.
BOTANY FOR REGINNERS—XX, - - 86
COPY | |
: THE ROUND-LEAVED MAIDEN HAIR, 88
$1.00 ANEW YARROW? 2 => <- se --*2 90
Mrs. C, E. PEASE. |
A 3 |
COLOR, Mae eater seo ae SP Neat OP
YEAR. NOTE AND COMMENT, as BN eee 93
BUVORIAL (ote eee ee eS 98
BROOKS AND WRITERS <= - - - 100

fi BINGHAMTON, N. Y.
WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO.

THE AMERIGAN BOTANIST ~
A MONTHLY JOURNAL FOR THE PLANT LOVER.

Issued On the 15th of Each Month. |
WILLARD N. CLUTE, = “6 : EDITOR.

SPECIAL NOTICE.

Two volumes of this magazine are issued each year. Subscriptions 60 cents a
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Entered at the Post Office at Binghamton, N. Y., as Second Class matter, Aug. 22, 1901.

A Trip to Mount Katahdin.

All persons desiring to visit Mount Katahdin this coming summer for the pur-
pose of collecting the rare plants and other forms of life found there are requested to
write to the undersigned for particulais and price of trip.

Parties desiring to purchase sets of Maine plants at reasonable prices write for
particulars. O. W. KNIGHT,

: State Assayer, 84 Forest Ave., Bangor, Maine.

Ot Oi OD @ OD! S O'S 0-0 OOD OHS O'S Di oO

Books Recommended

In this department we shall, from time to time, recom-
mend books that to us seem of special value to readers of
this journal.

111.—Fern Books.

It all depends upon what you want the book for. Ifa technical manual with
descriptions of the North American species, get Underwood's ‘‘Our Native Ferns’’
($1.08); if a popular handbook for Eastern America select either Parson’s ‘‘How
to Know the Ferns’’ ($1.63), Water's ‘'Ferns’’ ($3.34) or Clute’s ‘‘Our Ferns in
Their Haunts’’ ($2.15). -Parson’s book is well written but the keys are difficult,
Water’s book has two technical keys and is illustrated with many photographs,
Clute’s book has more text than either, has illustrated keys, colored plates and the
225 other illustrations are by an artist of ability. The real fern lover needs all
three. Eastman's ‘‘New England Ferns’’ ($1.25) is a new book that is useful but
not so comprehemsive as the others, while Dodge’s ‘‘Ferns and Fern Allies of
New England”’ (50 cts.) is a complete little technical mannal. Clute’s ‘‘Fern
Collector's Guide’’ (50 cts.) tells where to find ferns and how to press, mount and
identify them,, Useful to take into the field.

For the above books, or any others, address,

WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., Binghamton, N. Y.

Gr BS BOS 2S 01 SS! OS ODO DO 9S D'O Di e«]
CHARLES D. PENDELL, PRINTER, BINGHAMTON, N. Y.

@& BP B+ oO BD: @ BO BD @ O- & <8] <—D-- OS 0
CBO 8! OD' OO: @ 3: D'O DoD: &

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST

VOL. vu. BING -HAMTON, N, e MAY, 1905. cet 5.

PEA-FLOWERS IN SUMMER.
BY DR. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY.

HERE 1s always a something clean-cut and handsome
about any one of the Leguminosz. They, indeed,
furnish quite a number of our showy wild-flowers. This
is even more evident as one goes west or south. I purpose
here to speak merely of our New England species, the
earliest of which, as it 1s one of the loveliest, is the lupme.
If one arises “early enough on a summer morning, he
may still find a fire-opal balanced in the center of the
palmate leaf. These compound leaves, by the way, of
seven oblanceolate, silvery leaflets, are extremely pretty
and contrast well with the violet-blue or, occasionally,,
white, racemes of papilionaceous flowers.

Next with us among the summer peas comes the wild
indigo with its yellow flowers. It is a custom in New
England to tie great bunches of this plant to the heads of
horses, with the belief that they keep off annoying flies.
The bushy plants, when growing, have a somewhat
weedy, untidy look, unless one views them in mass, when
they have something of the effect of the European gorse
or broom. They rather like sandy districts or dry
meadows and pastures.

Two extremely dainty plants whichat first one hardly
suspects to be of the pulse afhliation occur in sandy
districts, especially near the railroads. These arethe wild
sensitive plants (Cassia chamecrista and C. nictitans).
The nearly regular flowers are yellow, and in the first, are
tinged near the center witha rich red-brown. The pinnate
leaves of numerous small leaflets respond more or less
promptly to a touch, closing upon themselves in pairs.
The plants are very graceful in habit and love the sunlight,

82 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

I have noticed that they so dispose their leaves as to face
the sun, especially in the afternoon, the upper side always
being turned towardsit. It is odd to see plants all facing
one way in this manner and suggests the familiar action
of SUphium laciniatum and Lactuca scarioja, both known
as ‘“‘compass-plants.’’ I have never seen the trick recorded
of Cassia. Another feature of the leaves has struck me,
viz :—their very close imitation, when closed, of the loment-
like pods. Is this a protective disguise tor some reason?
The pods are not actual loments as they split their whole
length, but they are deeply indented by each seed.

Another plant, very common on arid plains and along
our sea-beaches, is Strophostylis or wild bean. The
flowers, though small, are pretty and of a peculiar shell-
like pink. The idea of the shell is still further suggested
by the peculiar twist of wings and keel. Gray gives this
curious account of their cross-pollination by insects, ‘‘The
keel, inclosing the stamens and pistils, is prolonged into
a narrow snout which is spirally twisted; the stigma is
oblique on the tip of the style, and the beard on the style
is mainly on the same side that the stigmais; the wing-
petals stand forward and turn downward, forming a
convenient landing-place for bees. The anthers early
discharge their pollen, much of which adheres lightly to
the base of the style. In the untouched flower all, from
first to last, is concealed in the coued keel. Press down
the wing-petals, and first the stigma and then the pollen-
laden tip of the style projects from the orifice; remove the
pressure and they withdraw within. When this pressure
is made by a bee resting on the wing-petals, while search-
ing for nectar within the base of the blossom between the
keel and the standard, the same movement occurs.’”’ Of
course the insect is then dusted by the pollen which he
bears away to another flower.

Apios tuberosa, the well-known ‘‘ground-nut,’’ has
also an extraordinary contrivance for cross-pollination
which may be found described in Vol. I of Gray’s ‘‘Struc-
tural Botany.’’ The flowers are of a peculiar mingling of

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 83

purple and flesh-color, and are deliciously, though inter-
mittently fragrant with the odor of violets. The very
large sweet-potato-like tubers of this plant were much
used by the Indians for food.

One of our daintiest Leguminous plants is the hog-nut
(Amphicarpz2a monoica). It isfound along woody roads,
on rocky slopes, or among low bushes in various situa-
tions—usually shaded. It scrambles over shrubbery, has
tri-foliolate leaves and very delicate pink flowers. Much
prettier are some of the tick-trefoils of the troublesome
genus Desmodium. Our adjective used meant to convey
the idea of their dificult study, but they are troublesome
in another sense; the jointed pods from whence they
derive their name, from desmos a chain, easily break up:
and being amply provided with hooks affix themselves to:
one’s clothing. Thus do they make man an unwilling
agent intheir distribution. However, the flowers of some
species are extremely lovely, and those of D. Canadensis
really showy. The bush-clovers or Lespedezas are near
relatives of the Desmodiums, but never as showy.

We might go on to speak of the white and yellow
melilots, sweet when drying with the odor of vanilla; of
the lucerne and alfalfa, and of the rattle-pod or Crotolaria.
Our article, however, is already protracted and it has
served its purpose if in any way it has produced an inter-
est in some at least of our wild pea-flowers.

Brown University, Providence, R. I.

SOME FAMILIAR POT-HERBS.
BYOWILLARD NiaCLUTE:

ACH year, almost before we have begun to think of
spring, we are apprised of the fact that a milder
season 1s approaching by the familiar sight of women and
children roaming about the fields and pastures in search
of dandelions. In localities where there are many of
foreign birth the gathering of dandelions assumes the
rank of a thriving industry for some weeks in spring.
Dandelion digging, however, is not confined to foreigners;

84 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

in early spring a taste for ‘‘greens’’ is developed in most
of us. The foreigner is most noticeable in collecting dan-
delions because he, or rather she, has not learned to use
our other available plants. One who has lived longer in
the country could name many plants as useful and pos-
sibly more palatable than the dandelion. To such the
wild things of the ordinary farm-yard fence-corners may
be madeto yield numerous attractive additions to hisfare
while almost any woodland or pasture will produce
others.

About the time that the dandelion is in its prime, the
tender leaves of the cowslip (Caltha palustris) are much
in demand by those who know their qualities. Only the
persistent gatherer, however, is likely to return with these
as his prize, for they delight to grow in mud and water
quite out of reach unless one is especially equipped for the
work of gathering them. Itisa matter for wonder that
this plant should be edible since it is one of the Ranuncula-
cee, a family noted for its possession of nauseous or
poisonous plant juices. The cowslip is own cousin to the
larkspur, aconite and hellebore.

Another early pot-herb is called the winter cress (Bar-
barea vulgaris) though the resemblance to the true cress
is not very striking. It is most abundant in old fields
and is so frequently used as to be dubbed ‘‘ poor man’s
cabbage.”’ It is a member of the great crucifer family from
which man has derived so many other edible plants and
it is therefore not surprising that this, too, may be eaten.
Possibly many other crucifers might prove palatable if
we were to try them. The list of those we now use,
though not as pot-herbs, is a long one and includes
cabbage, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts, radish,
turnip, cress, pepper-grass, horse-radish, mustard and
various others. The tops of horse-radish, turnip and
mustard are often used for “‘greens,’”’ and in some places
both mustard and turnips are cultivated for this purpose.

The standard wild pot-herb in most of the region in
which it grows is the milkweed. There are many herbs

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 85

with a milky juice called milkweeds but the plant used for
the table is the one that bears the fat pods of brown-
coated, silky-plumed seeds in late autumn and is to be
found along most dusty waysides. Its scientific name is
Asclepias Cornuti. It is a bulky plant and the tops
remain tender until the plant is a foot or more high.
Associated with the milkweed and not unlike it in general
appearance is the poke (Phytolacca decandra). Certain
venturesome individuals annually gather it for food but
the majority avoid it because of its dangerous character.
The root is known to be deadly poisonous, but the tops
appear to be harmless. The plant is even more lusty and
succulent than the milkweed and in many places can be
gathered by the bushel.

Although the pigweed (Chenopodium album) is edible,
this fact does not appear to detract from its weedy quali-
ties nor does it serve to greatly reduce its numbers. Pos-
sibly the name, pigweed, is enough to preserve it from
being eaten byman. When gathered for food it is usually
called red-root or lamb’s-quarters. Pigweed is a near
relative of our best-known pot-herb, the spinach, and both
belong to the Chenopodiaceze of which the beet is also a
member.

Such unpromising things as the nettle and purslane
are also said tobe good tor the table. Certainly both are
‘common enough in some places to become the mainstay
of the community. The purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is
a near relative of the spring beauty whose tubers the
Indians are said toeat. _ eo

The asparagus vies with the spinach for first place at
the table, and while it is well known to be a harmless: and
palatable plant it comes of a family that is not above
suspicion. To this family, the Liliacee, belongs the
poisonous white hellebore, lily-of-the-valley, squills and
many others. Curiously enough, one of the plants of this
family that closely resembles the asparagus when young,
the Solomon’s-seal (Polygonatum) is occasionally used
exactly like its better known relative. It is picked just

86 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

after it has appeared above the ground and is said to be
much like asparagus in taste.

So few of the flowerless plants are used for food that
it is something of a surprise to find, at least, three kinds
of ferns edible. These are collected just as the fronds are
unrolling and boiled. The species most commonly used is
the cinnamon fern (Osmunda) though it has rather too
much mucilage in its make-up to suit the ordinary palate.
The young fronds of the Ostrich fern (Struthiopteris) are
also used, though it ought to be considered little less than
sacrilege to destroy such magnificent plants to gratify a
taste for green things. The bracken (Pteris) crosiers are
occasionally eaten but they lack the tenderness of the
others.

The plants mentioned above are doubtless but a small
proportion of the wild species used for the table. All
parts of the country have their own peculiar plants. The
knowledge that they are edible has in many cases been
derived from the Indians; in others it has come by way
of experiment in times of a scarcity of better food. It
would be interesting to know how many more can be
added to this list, especially in the South and West.

Joliet, Ill.

BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS—XX.

THE SEDGES (CYPERACE).

Although the sedges are of small importance to man
the immense number of species seem to warrant the con-
clusion that they are of considerable use in Nature’s
economy. There are nearly three thousand species. Like
their allies, the grasses, these plants are distributed
throughout the world being most common, doubtless, in
the swamps and wet meadows of temperate regions.
Some few species are found on dry land, just as some
grasses are nearly aquatic, but as a general thing the
sedges keep to the moist places and the grasses to the
drier ones. Although the sedges of the tropics are tall and
luxuriant, this branch of the order Graminales seems not

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 87

to have developed an arborescent or tree-like group simi-
lar to the bamboos. The family likeness is plainly
stamped on most of the species which are thus made
easily distinguishable from grasses; but in some cases the
young student is likely to vote the likenesses altogether
too close as in the genus Cyperus with four hundred
species or the genus Carex which contains about seven
hundred!

As a whole the Cyperacez seem to be a bit easier to
identify than the grasses. The flower approaches more
closely the typical monocotyledon flower, having in some
cases a whorl of six perianth segments, six stamens and a
pistil composed of three carpels. There are seldom more
than three stamens, however. The perianth segments
may be slender and bristle-like or short and broad. In
Eriophorum the many cottony hairs are regarded as
parts ofa perianth. Other members of the group have
flowers quite devoid of a perianth as in Carex. In this
latter genus the staminate and pistillate flowers are in
separate heads and the pistillate are surrounded by a
bottle-shaped sheath called a perigynium. Some regard
this as the equivalent of a perianth but the modern view
makes it a bract such as subtends the flower in other

members of the Cyperacez.
The flowers are small, green, inconspicuous and as

may be assumed pollinated by the wind. The majority,
as in the grasses, avoid self-pollination by ripening pistils
and stamens at different times when the two organs occur
in the same flower. In others, as Carex, the two kinds of
essential organs are in separate heads and often on sepa-
rate plants, thus necessitating cross-pollination. The
stigmas are seldom feathery as in the grasses, though the
flowers are wind-pollinated. The fruit is a triangular or
lens-shaped achene or utricle, depending entirely upon
whether the pericarp closely surrounds the seed or is
inflated. In structure the Cyperacez may be distinguished
from the Graminez by their solid, usually triangular,
stems, their long, narrow, three ranked leaves springing

88 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

from a sheathing base but without aligule where the two
join. Like the grasses, the sedges spread by underground
runners but the former tend to form mat-like growths
while the latter incline to tufts and tussocks. The sedges
are also remarkable for usually having the internode bear-
ing the flower many times longer than the others.

From the tact that very careful work is necessary to
identify the various species of grasses and sedges, the
group is one to attract discriminating botanists and has
always been a favorite with close students. The identifi-
cation of the species is a mostexcellent drillin observation
and accuracy and is likely to prove interesting even tothe
beginner who will attempt it.

THE ROUND-LEAVED MAIDEN HAIR.

Adiantum reniforme.

There is probably no genus inthe world more distinct-
ly marked than Adiantum, to which the maiden-hair ferns
belong. The peculiar one-sided pinnules with the main
rib running along the lower margins, and the oblong sori
concealed under overlapping lobes of the opposite margins
are so characteristic that the merest novice has no trouble
to refer all ordinary forms to their proper places. More
difficulty would be experienced, however, if all the ferns of
the world were examined, for then it would be seen that
all maiden-hair ferns do not have pinnules of the one-sided
type and we should have to fall back on the characters of
the sorus and indusium to be sure of our plants. The
species that we have chosen for illustration is one of the
Jatter kind. From a casual glance at itsfronds we would
scarcely take it for a fern at all, much less a maiden-hair
fern, but the characteristic form of the fruit dots settles
the question beyond doubt. It may be added, however,
that maiden-hair ferns with simple entire fronds are ex-
ceedingly rare, there being only one other species with this
peculiarity in the world. Both are natives of the Old
World, Adiantum reniforme being found in Madeira and
Teneriffe, and A. Parishii growing in the Malay Peninsula.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 89

Our illustration of A. reniforme is nearly life size. A.
Parishii has much shorter stipes. |

The genus which Adiantum is nearest like is the Trop-
ical one called Lindsaya. The latter has one-sided pin-
nules as in the maiden-hair family and its sori are mar-

An a «e
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ADIANTUM RENIFORME.

ginal. The indusium, however, is slightly different,
_ having an inner membraneous indusium and an outer
os thicker one formed by the reflexed part of the frond. The

90 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

sporangia, moreover, are situated onthe frond at a slight
distance from the margin in Lindsaya, while in Adiantum
the sporangia grow from the reflexed lobes that form the
indusium. Some tropical forms of maiden-hair have
elongated sori that might incline one to think them
members of the Pteris genus, but in this latter the sporan-
gla are in a continuous marginal sorus and covered by
the reflexed edge of the frond.—Willard N. Clute in The
Fern Bulletin.

A NEW YARROW ?

BY MRS. C. E. PEASE.
AST August (1904) I went with a party of friends from
Portland, Me., on an excursion through the White
Mountains, stopping at the Fabyan House about half
an hour for lunch. Most of the excursionists hurried off
the train to the hotel, while I, and a few others, strolled
about to enjoy the views and to investigate the growing
things to see what we might find unlike what we were

familiar with at home.

Immediately I noticed across the track, spreading up
over the sloping bank, an abundance of white bloom
clothing the ground as thickly as daisies in a neglected
field or the golden buttercups in a meadow. ‘“ What is
that looking so much like yarrow ?”’ I exclaimed, hurry-
ing over for a closer inspection. It proved to be yarrow,
but so different in general appearance as to seem not tobe
when viewed at a slight distance. It was more robust
throughout the entire plant than the common Archillea
millefolium. The stalks were somewhat stouter, the
cymes broader and heavier in character, the little white
outer ray-flowers larger and the leaves seemed coarser.
My sister, more of a botanist than myself, noticed that
the receptacles were sharply conical and remarked that
she never before saw a yarrow with other than a flat
receptacle. Icould not recall ever seeing yarrow growing
in such an extended patch—thickly covering quite a hill-
side. I usually find it common enough, but only a limited

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 91

number of plants in one spot, more scattering in growth—
here and there a plant.

Upon reaching home we referred to our botanies but
could not find any description of our white mountain
yarrow. I have not had the opportunity to make many
inquiries about yarrows, but thought that some reader of
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST might be able to throw some
light upon the subject. Is there another species, and has
it been introduced by means of the railroad, as have so
many of our weeds?

We were also much interested and pleased to find upon
the rocks, forming a wall restricting the riverto a narrow
channel as it passed beneath the railroad bridge, the first
beech ferns (Phegopteris polypodioides) we had ever seen
growing. They were much more lovely rooted in the
rocks, with their dainty green fronds gracefully swaying
over the water, then when dried and mounted on herbar-
ium sheets.

These two finds added much to the enjoyment of the
trip, and will remain in our minds with the memory
pictures of the beautiful mountain scenery.

Malden, Mass.

[Possibly the plant was the northern yarrow (Archil-
lea borealis). Since the last edition of Gray’s Manual
was printed, several forms of yarrow from America have
been distinguished some of which appear to be good
species.—ED. |

COLOR.

Now that we are on the brink of the brilliant annual
display of spring flowers which herald the approach of the
general flowering season, a little consideration of what
color really is may not he out of place, especially if
coupled with some indications of thoselaws which govern
that harmony which best and most pleasurably appeals
to our sense of beauty.

Color is undoubtedly one of the most subtle features
of plant life among many, since, although popularly we

G2 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

may impute it to the presence of certain pigmentary sub-
stances within the cells of the leaves or the petals or the
fruit as the case may be, this merely begs the question of
the how and why these substances influence our eyes in
such wonderfully different ways. We perceive color in
fact in a somewhat topsy-turvy manner, as we shall
presently see. White hght, as most of us know, is pro-
duced by a combination of all the colors of the rainbow,
that wonderful phenomenon, indeed, resulting from the
breaking up of the sun’s rays by the prismatic raindrops
into their various components in such a way that they
are arranged side by side instead of being mixed up, and,
as we know, a glass prism does the same thing. The
difference in color in the various rays is due entirely to
different wave lengths of the light rays, and with the
color-producing rays are intermingled others which are
invisible—heat rays, which are also sorted out but cannot
be seen, but only felt. |

With these rays we have for the present nothing to
do, so we will proceed to expiain our expression of topsy-
turvy by stating that when the rays of light fall upon
leaves, etc., of plants, certain series of them are absorbed,
and others rejected, and it is by virtue of those colored
rays with which the plants, soto speak, will have nothing
to do, that we perceive the colors we impute to them.
Thus, to put it roughly, the green leaves absorb all the
red rays, while the ‘‘ red, red rose”’ appropriates the green
ones, and the snowy white lily rejects them all.

How the great diversity in floral color has been
brought. about by evolution is, to a great extent, a
mystery. Presumably primeval flowers were green, see-
ing that in all cases they are merely modified leaves, and
we still see survivals of green flowers, as, for instance, in
some of the euphorbias (our common milkweed, to wit),
and occasionally we see reversions as in the green’ roses
and dahlias. Undoubtedly, the tastes of the insect world
have played alarge part herein, since the fertilizing insects
are certainly guided mainly by color, and in this way

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 93

conspicuousness and distinctness of tints has been encour-
aged and developed, as well as divergence of form, size,
and arrangement evolved to the same end, viz., greater
attractiveness. Man himself came in at a much later
period as a selective factor, and has enormously increased
the brilliancy of many flowers; but it is abundantly
obvious that a host of magnificently colored blooms of
purely natural origin have been independent of his aid,
when we consider some of the tropical passion flowers,
Gloriosa superba, Tacsonias, and so on.—From an article
by Charles T. Druery in Indian Planting and Gardening.

@ Note and CormrmHent. 4

WANTED.—Short notes of interest to the general bot-
anist are always in demand for this department. Our
readers are invited to make this the place of publication
for their botanical items. |

PLANTS OF THE NORTHWEST.—Last summer a party of
botanists visited the Selkirk and Rocky Mountains in Brit-
ish America for the purpose of collecting the plants of that
region. Herbarium specimens of these are now for sale
and may be obtained of Edw. B. Heacock, Wyncote, Pa.

PEDICULARIS SPECIES WANTED.—A French botanist,
Mr. G. Bonati, of Lure, Department of Haute-Saone, is
desirous of obtaining good specimens of American Pedi-
cularis, being at work on a monograph of the genus. He
offersto send in exchange plants from France and Switzer-
land of which he has an extensive collection. Mr. Henry
Dantun, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, will be glad to receive
offers and requests for exchanges, which he will duly
transmit to Mr. Bonati. Readers of this journal will
doubtless be glad of the opportunity to assist in the
enterprise. The species of the far North, West and South
are most desired.

94. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

RELATION OF PLANTS TO THE SoiL.—The botanist is
often able to judge the nature of the soil by the plant
growing uponit. Some plants seem made for sterile soils
and rarely grow elsewhere. The old story of the blind
man who went to buy a farm well illustrates this point.
Dismounting from his horse he ordered it tied to a mullein
stalk, but after a search none could be found. He then
decided that a stalk of dock would do. Upon being told
that there were plenty of docks about he at once concluded
the bargain, saying that docks are always found in fertile
land and mulleins never.

FERNWORTS AS WEEDs.—In a recent number of The
Fern Bulletin Prof. C. E. Bessey notes that one ot the fern
allies, Marsilia vestita, has been sent him with the inform-
ation that it is becoming troublesome in certain wet
meadows. In another number ot the same journal Prof.
R. S. Cocks writes that the little water fern (Azolla Caro-
liniana), which is individually so small that a whole plant
may be covered by a silver dime, grows in such abundance
on a pond in Audubon Park, New Orleans, that no less
than fourteen cartloads, weighing nearly seven tons, were
removed during the summer. The lake is only abouta
quarter of an acre in extent.

EXTERMINATION OF RHODODENDRONS.—The common
rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum) grows in im-
mense quantities along the southern Alleghanies and it
will be many years before it is threatened with extinction,
but further north the plant is rarer and when the commer-
cial instinct stirs in the owners of these outlying clumps
the fact is to be deplored. An instance of this kind has
just come to notice. An individual near Kingston, R.I.,is
offering rhododendrons from that region at a rate that
seems to threaten the very existence of the plant. In this
case, however, the dealer is beyond the influence of the
plant protection societies, because, owning the land, he
can do as he pleases with the plants. When plants are
sufficiently valuable to tempt the cupidity of man, senti-
ment is of no effect in protecting them.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 95

WILTING OF FLOWERS.—In any company of flower-
gatherers it will be noted that all are not able to preserve
their bouquets in similar condition. Though all gather
the same flowers at the same time, it will soon be found
that the flowers gathered by some wilt much more quickly
than those gathered by others. This peculiarity appears
not easily explained, though most botanizers can doubt-
less recali instances of it.

LOCALITY AND COMMON NAMES.—The common names
often change with the locality and are then no better than
the scientific names of the ‘‘new’’ nomenclature. For
instance: the sycamore of Scripture is a fig, the sycamore
of England is a maple and that of America is the button-
wood (Platanus occidentalis). It is necessary to give the
scientific name of the button-wood, because in some parts
of our own country the same name is given to a small
bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis). A more familiar case
of the confusion of common names is found in the applica-
tion of the word mayflower. In England this is applied
to the hawthorn (Crate#gus), in Massachusetts to the
trailing arbutus (Epigza repens), in New York and Penn-
sylvania to the azalia (A. nudiflora), in various places to
the mandrake (Podophyllum peltatum) or the hepatica
(H. triloba).

LOCALITY AND THE COLOR OF FLOWERS.—Sometimes
one finds a most remarkable difference in the colors of
flowers of the same species from different localities. Inthe
Eastern States, Trillium erectum is so constantly dull red
in color as to be called commonly the red trillium. In the
vicinity of Joliet, Ill., the flowers are pure white and one
might collect for years without seeinga red one. It would
be interesting to know whether the white flowered form
is confined tothe middle west and whether the two colors
intergrade where the eastern and western forms meet.
Evidently the flowers indicate two so-called ‘elementary
species.’”’? Readers are requested to report on the forms
found in their own locality, not forgetting to mention the
yellowish green form of the flower when it occurs. It

96 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

would be interesting to know also whether soil, climate
or longitude have any effect on the color of the flowers.
Another similar difference in the flowers of Lilium Cana-
dense has come to the editor’s notice. When this lily was
first encountercd in southern New York many years ago,
he was surprised tolearnthat its common name was wild
yellow lily for all the plants he could find were bright
orange red, quite as red, in fact, as the wood lily (Lilium
Philadelphicum). This coloration seems to prevail across
the southern part of the State, though yellow blossoms
are occasionally found. As one travels east, however, the
colors gradually change places until in Southern New
England the flowers are nearly all yellow and the plant is
rightly named the yellow lily. Is this another case of an
elementary species? Additional notes are much desired.
Cases of such coloration are not peculiar to flowers, it
would seem, for the httle screech owl (Megascops asio) is
sometimes gray and at others bright reddish brown.

Various TEAS.—It is probable that the real tea will
never be supplanted in the regard of civilized man by an
infusion of some other plant, but it is interesting to note
that aside from the tamiliar ‘‘herb tea’”’ of former times
taken for its medicinal qualities, mankind has, under
stress of circumstances, evolved several tolerable substi-
tutes. During the Civil War, tea made from’ sassafras
roots is said to have been frequently used in the South as
abeverage. Its use as ablood purifier is common in some
sections at present. If we are to believe the historians,
tea made from the leaves of raspberry and Ceanothus
Americanus was frequently used during the Revolutionary
War. Indeed, the latter plant is said to have received its
name of New Jersey tea onthis account. The name of tea-
berry applied to the wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)
hints at its use asa beverage. An infusion was made of
the leaves and was often known as mountain or salvador
tea. A near relative of the wintergreen—Ledum Jatifolium
—is known as Labrador tea from the use of its leaves for
tea. Its taste is said to be between tansy and chamomile

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 97

—not a very appetizing article, one would think. In the
same category might be placed the tea made from a species
of goldenrod (Solidago odora). Those who have tried it
will willingly testify to its tansy-like taste. The plant is
often known as Pennsylvania mountain tea. A fragrant
tea is reported to have been made from spice-bush (Ben-
zoin). A better-known tea is that from the sweet fern
(Myrica asplenifolia) which has the virtue of being medi-
cinal as well as palatable. The infusion of the berries of
several sumacs (Rhus glabra, R.typhina and R. copallina)
as well as of the barberry can scarcely be called teas and
yet they belong tothe beverages derived from wild plants.
No doubt there are many others. As for. medicinal teas,
used solely for their curative properties, they are too
numerous to mention were they entitled to a place among
the beverages.

ELEMENTARY SPECIES.—It seems probable that there
are more of DeVries’ elementary species about than one
would at first surmise. When the collector discovers a
plant that differs from the normal, instead of pulling it up
for an herbarium specimen he would do well to transplant
it to a safe place in his garden forfurther observation; or,
if he cannot do this, he should by all means collect the
seeds that others may experiment with them. When sat-
isfied that it is really an elementary species, he should
carefully describe it and give it a name. Other students
may do good work in cultivating species thought to be
varieties of others. The blue violets are excellent subjects
for investigation. No one doubts that most of the violet
species described are different from the others, but that
they are systematic species may be very seriously ques-
tioned. Only cultural experiments seem likely to settle
the matter, but it is pretty certain that many of these can
be proved to be elementary species. Any two forms that
differ merely in the quantity of pubescence, color of the
flowers, number of petals or shape of the fruits are desir-
able subjects for experiment. |

ie Bditecant: "

It is the intention of the publishers of this magazine
to send extra copies of each number to all writers of
articles and notes appearing therein. If by any chance a
writer is overlooked we shall be glad to have our atten-
tion called to the fact. If your contribution is only a
short note, we shall be glad to send you extras for your

friends if you want them.
* *

*

It cannot be denied that there is a pleasure in collect-
ing plants and making an herbarium that can be obtained
in no other way. The plants of the greater part of the
United States are now fairly well known and the large
herbariums are so well supplied with our common species
that no more are desired, and yet we continue to collect
these common plants and to enjoy the labor. Most of us
have a more or less sharply developed instinct for collect-
ing something and if we must collect, what appeals more
to us than the flowers? It is probable that every nature
lover is better off for the making of an herbarium if he
does not become a slave to the collecting habit. There
are some private herbariums that are of great value to
their owners but to many others the plants they amass
are scarcely more valuable than so much hay. It all
depends upon whether one makes such a collection for use
or to satisfy the collecting instinct. Unless you are a
systematic botanist, interested in a comparison of the
differences between species, we maintain that every plant
added to your herbarium by exchange is in some measure
aloss. Every specimen accumulated by the true collector
should be collected by himself; to allow someone else to
collect it for him is to deprive himself of that much
pleasure. To be sure such a collection will not grow as
fastas others but the pleasure of making it will last longer
while the species not yet included in it will stand as so
many reasons for further excursions into new regions
which bring with them all the delights of discovery.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 99

It is much harder to pay for anything after we have
used it than to pay in advance. If we pay at the begin-
ning, we appreciate the value of the article each time it is
used; if we pay at the end we are wont to think the
article is dearly purchased. This applies to magazines as
well asto other things. We expect subscribers ultimately
to pay for what they get, and we have no hesitancy in
extending credit to all who desire it, and yet we know
that all will enjoy the magazine more if it is paid for when
received and therefore suggest to those in arrears that it
is a good thing to pay up and to pay in advance.

% *
*

Having had occasion, recently, to look carefully
through the first dozen volumes of one of the older Ameri-
botanical journals, that is still being published, we were
impressed with the utter lack of interest which most of
the numbers display. This is not to be considered asa
criticism of the magazine for at the time these numbers
were published it is probable that the editor selected the
matter for publication most suited to the demands of his
readers. The contents consist in great part of localities
tor more or less common species, lists of plants found in
flower on botanizing expeditions, and other items of no
greater general interest that make exceedingly dry brows-
ing for readers of the present day. As we made our way
through these unattractive pages, we began to query
whether the makers of current botanical literature might
not here obtain a hint that would save their own writings
from a similar fate. Notes on distribution are very desir-
able especially from regions not fully explored, but as soon
as a region becomes well known these records lose a great
part of their interest. Descriptions of species, still more
necessary, are seldom read except by the systematist.
Notes regarding plant habits or plant adaptations, how-
ever, have a perennial interest as do articles about plants
from any fresh or striking view-point. Not only do such
items hold their interest longest, but the source from
which they are drawn is practically inexhaustible. The

100 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

living botanical literature of the future, therefore, it seems
to us, is likely to be concerned more with the activities
and structure of plants, than with any records of their
distribution and abundance.

BOOKS AND WRITERS.

The days of species-making in the best sense of that
term seem to have forever passed. The plants of most
parts of the world are now fairly well known and while
we shall continue to discover occasional species new to
science, we may begin to sum upthe relationships of those
already in hand. It is astonishing how rapidly our ideas
of such relationships have changed in the past two
decades. Less than a score of years ago it was the
custom in books devoted to systematic botany to sand-
wich the pines and their allies in somewhere between the
oaks and palms, but no author of the present day would
think of doing so. Our ideas of classification have
steadily gained in clearness and have made possible such
a work as that of Alfred B. Rendle’s on ‘‘ The Classifica-
tion of Flowering Plants.’’ The first volume of this work,
recently issued, discusses the classification of the Gymno-
sperms and Monocotyledons and will prove of interest to
all students of plants whose interest in the subject extends
beyond that sort of classification of plants that consists
merely in pulling the flowers to pieces in order to learn
their names. Beginning with an historical introduction
the book proceeds to discuss the Gymnosperms, both
living and fossil, each group coming in for an adequate
review of their salient characteristics. Tables of the
orders, families and genera with their distribution are
given. Following this the Monocotyledons are treated
in the same thorough manner. Especial attention is
given to such subjects as methods of pollination, habit,
habitat and distribution. It may be noted that the
author uses Order in the sense that American writers use
Family. Nearly two hundred excellent illustrations add
to the interest of the four hundred pages of text. (New
York, The MacMillan Co., 1904.)

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SPEGIES: AND VARIETIES:
Their Origin by Mutation

By HUGO DE VRIES

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e | VOL. 8 7s. JUNE, 1905. NO. 6. |

||THEAMERICAN
|| BOTANIST.

CONTENTS.

RTE PAPAW: cto etal AGE

CENTS | |
tf ABOUT MILKWEEDS, ES Fiesta aA
A Dr» WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY,
COPY | | BOTANY FOR REGINNERS—XXI. - - 106

PLANTS WITH EXTRA-FLOKAL NEC-
$3.00 PAREBG Se wee eke Se ee pg

A one POLLEN ee Fe ee ee tk at

NOTE AND COMMENT, - .- -- 114
POMIDORIAL, = 2-se gee ee 8
| BOOKS AND WRITERS - - ~ - 119

BINGHAMTON, N. Y.
WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO.

THE AMERIGAN BOTANIST
A MONTHLY JOURNAL FOR THE PLANT LOVER.

Issued on the 15th of Each Month.
WILLARD N. CLUTE, . = = . EDITOR.

SPECIAL NOTICE.

Two volumes of this magazine are issued each year. Subscriptions 60 cents a
volume or $1.00 a year. All subscriptions must begin with a volume. This maga-
zine is sent to all subscribers until ordered discontinued and all arrearages paid.
Subscribers may pay each year when most convenient. All subscriptions more than
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WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., Publishers, Binghamton, yay a
Entered at the Post Office at Binghamton, N.-Y., as Second Class matter, Aug. 22, 1901.

A Trip to Mount Katahdin.

All persons desiring to visit Mount Katahdin this coming summer for the pur-
pose of collecting the rare plants and other forms of life found there are requested to
write to the undersigned for particulais and price of trip.

Parties desiring to patliose sets of Maine plants at reasonable prices write for
particulars. O. W. KNIGHT,

State Assayer, 84 Forest Ave., Bangor, Maine.

BQ SO POS OOS DS 0D O 0D). S SS <8 S B-S 0

Books Recommended

In this department we shall, from time to time, recom-
mend books that to us seem-of special value to readers of
this journal.

Iil.—Fern Books.

It all depends upon what you want the book for. Ifa technical manual with
descriptions of the North American species, get Underwood's ‘‘Our Native Ferns”’
($1.08); ifa popular handbook for Eastern America select either Parson’s ‘‘How
to Know the Ferns”’ ($1.63), Water’s ‘‘Ferns’’ ($3.34) or Clute’s ‘‘Our Ferns in
Their Haunts"’ ($2.15). Parson’s book is well written but the keys are difficult,
Water’s book has two technical keys and is illustrated with many. photographs,
Clute’s book has more text than either, has illustrated keys, colored plates and the
225 other illustrations are by an artist of ability. The real fern lover needs all
three. Eastman's ‘‘New England Ferns’’ ($1.25) is a new book that is useful but
not so comprehemsive as the others, while Dodge’s ‘‘Ferns and Fern Allies. of
New England’’ (50 cts.). is a complete little technical mannal. Clute’s ‘“‘Fern
Collector’s Guide’’ (50 cts.) tells where to find ferns and how to press, mount and
identify them, _ Useful to take into the field.

For the above books, or any others, address,

WILLARD N. CLUTE & CO., Binghamton, N. Y.

@ SB OBS DOD OD! OD SD! ODO D+ Oo @:.@ <
CHARLES D. PENDELL, PRINTER, BINGHAMTON, N.Y.

CO? OO) OD OD! OD! ODO! OD S DO 0
alta eae a ee

FLOWERING BRANCH OF THE PAPAW.

(Asimina triloba.)

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

Vou. VIII. BINGHAMTON, N. Y., JUNE, 1905. No. 6.

THE PAPAW.

Asimina triloba.

ARK gray,smooth; young shoots dark pubescent; leaves obovate,
B acute, cuneate at base; petioles short; flowers appearing with
the leaves; sepals three; petals six, dull red, the outer set larger;
stamens many,in a globose mass; pistils several, distinct, but few ripen-
ing; fruit a fleshy pod-like structure, containing several large flattish
seeds—A shrub or small tree in rich moist soil ranging from western New

York, Michigan and Nebraska southward to the Gulf.

Although the papaw extends northward in the Miss-
issippi Valley nearly to the Canadian border, and spreads
eastward under the salubrious influence of the Great
Lakes until it crosses this border into Ontario, it is essen-
tially a southern species and is at its best nearer the Gulf.
The Northern botanist coming upon a papaw thicket for
the first time is likely to be impressed with the tropical
appearance of the plant and is not surprised upon being
told that this is the most northern member of the great
custard-apple family which in the tropics numbers nearly
five hundred species. The large leaves, for the most part
borne near the extremities of the slender branches, give
our tree an individuality that prevents its ever being con-
fused with any of the other plants that affect the same
habitat.

In other ways the tree shows its southern kinship.
The leaf-buds are not encased in scales during the winter
as they are in strictly northern plants, but hang from the
bare branches, naked save for their coating of dark brown
hairs. In appearance they strongly suggest the leaf-buds
of the witch-hazel. Nor do they develop with the first
warm days of spring as the naked buds might lead one to
expect. On the contrary the leaves are not fully spread in
the States north of the Ohio river until the last week in

102 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

May—near the end of the season for the early spring
flowers, and some time after the other trees have donned
their summer foliage.

The flower-buds appear to be formed in autumn and
to pass the winter in wrappings similar to those of the
leaf-buds. The flowers are as deliberate in opening as are
the leaves and when they do bloom present a singular
appearance strung along the nearly naked branches as
represented in our illustration. At a little distance, a
papaw thicket at flowering time looks like a thicket
through which a forest fire has recently passed.

The flowers approach globose inform and hang down-
ward from the axils of the leaves. The sepals are rather
short, but the six petals are quite large, often twice as
large as those in the illustration, and increase in size for
some time after the flower has opened. Although the
flower is constructed upon what appears tobe the plan of
three, it is really a dicotyledon. As floral relationships
go, however, it is not very high in development and it is
noticeable that it belongs to the group which includes the
barberry, magnolia, mandrake, water-lily, calycanthus
and other plants whose flowers have not yet settled down
into the usual five-parted type of the dicotyledons. The
color of the petals may be described as dull red, though
Gray calls them dull purple and others describe them as
brown. Careful observation will show that red and
brown colors predominate. The flowers are apparently
adapted for cross-pollination for the stigmas, though rip-
ening at about the same time as the stamens, project
beyond them and so are not easily self-pollinated. The
two sets of thick, veiny petals alternate with each other
and enclose the essential organs except for a triangular
opening which resembles the entrance to the flower of
Canada ginger. The smaller inner petals secrete an
abundance of nectar on the inner side near the base, and
here the color is paler, serving as an efficient ‘‘honey-
guide.’”’ The flowers have a heavy, yeasty, rather disa-
greeable odor with just a hint of the smell of the ripe fruit

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 103

in it. The flowers are overrun with ants and small
beetles that should prove most effective agents in pollina-
tion if the pistils could be affected by the pollen in the
same flower. The plant, however, rarely produces much
fruit inthe northern parts of its range, though the flowers
are usually abundant and each contains several pistils.
The larve of an interesting butterfly, the zebra swallow-
tail (Iphiclides ajax) feeds upon the papaw and it is sug-
gested that the adult insect is the species likeliest to affect
cross-pollination. This insect, like the tree itself, is rather
southern in its distribution, and its rarity may account
for the scarcity of fruits in the Northern States. It may
be queried in passing how the ants discover so quickly
that the papaws are in bloom. In flowers nearer the
ground their presence is not so surprising, but in papaw
flowers twenty feet or more in the air one might expect to
find them absent.

Late in Autumn the peice like fruit ripens. At
maturity it is four inches or more long, a third as broad,
and reddish yellow with a thick rind that encloses a soft
fragrant pulp in which are embedded a half a dozen or
more large smooth seeds. The pulp is edible and hasa
flavor that at once brings to mind the flavor of the tropi-
cal fruits of this family 1f one has ever eaten them. To
many palates the flavor is too strong to be agreeable, but
there is enough demand for the fruit in some sections to
to cause it to be sent to market in some quantity. The
leaves remain on the tree until late in the Autumn and be-
fore falling turn to a rich clear yellow that lights up the
thickets for some days.

ABOUT MILKWEEDS.
BY DR. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY.
OTHING can be more singular than the structure af,
milkweed flowers. If one compares them with the
morphologic ideal of a flower, or with one which actually
approaches the unit, we fail utterly to refer some of the
parts. They are aberrant and almost bizarre.

104. THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

The five portions of the persistent calyx are spreading ;
the five divisions of the corolla reflexed and deciduous.
Within the floral envelopes is the ‘“‘crown’’ of five hood-
hke bodies, the ““nectaries’”’ of -Linnzus:, Each one.o:
these contain an incurved horn. The stamens are five in
number, united by their filaments into a tube, within
which, finally, is the pistil. The anthers are adherent to
the stigma and have two vertical cells, each cell or com-
partment containing a pear-shaped pollinium or pollen-
mass. ‘‘The two contiguous pollen-masses of adjacent
anthers form pairs which hang by a slender prolongation
of their summits from five cloven glands that grow onthe
angles of the stigma.’’ The pollen-masses are removed by
butterflies or other insects, often adhering to their heads
and appearing like extra antenne.

Every one knows the pods of the milkweed. In some
species, like Asclepias verticillata, these are smooth, long,
and tapering; in others, like A. cornuti, they are more
ellipsoidal in shape and thickly beset with pointed tuber-
cles. These are never resistant enough to be called actual
prickles, though epidermic in origin. Given a range of
species and the pods differ extremely as to size, and even
position. Thus, while in A. cornuti they are ‘‘erect on
deflexed pedicels,’’ in others, like A. verticillata, they are
strictly erect.

In all cases the contained seeds are flat, brown in
color, wing-margined or rimmed, and beautifully imbri-
cated over each other, each seed held downlike one of Blue
Beard’s wives—by its hair. This silky hair with which
each seed isturnished arisesfrom its top, forming an exqui-
site fairy parachute totransport it through the air. This
tuft of hairs or ‘‘coma”’ absolutely and neatly balances
the seed. To the writer it was always a mystery that
there should never be a mistake in the length of the hairs.
The seed never wobbles in the air; it is plumb and true
always. One never tires of setting these little balloons
afloat.

It is surprising how Nature will vary a type in the

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 105

production of species; indeed it is these variations that
cause us to recognize species. Each species of milkweed,
for instance, has its own special color. The tall, common
A. cornuti is flesh colored; the poke-leaved milkweed (A.
phytolaccoides) a paler, more delicate shade of the same
hue; A. guadrifolia, a charming little woodland species,
nearly white; A. purpurascens a glorious purple; A. in-
carnata, a swamp species, red; finally and most glorious
of all is A. tuberosa, the butterfly weed, which is a flam-
ming transcendent orange. All these plants are, in New
England, a feature of the summer landscape, the incarnata
especially so from its situation in swamps or meadows.
From car windows one catches a flash of the superb
tuberosa. ‘This species is well worth a place in the flower
garden. Entomologists have, of course, long known that
milkweeds furnish good collecting grounds for lepidoptera
and coleoptera. Theyswarm with butterflies and beetles.
One rarely fails to find, hovering over their flowers, the
milkweed butterfly par excellence, the Danais Archippus,
beautiful as larva, chrysalis, or imago. The chrysalis,
indeed, is one of the most exquisite objects in nature—a
pure apple-green casket beset with a ring of dazzling gold
beads. When one finds it, he may well exclaim, what an
ear-drop for Titania! The perfect butterfly is a deep
sienna color, striped with black and spotted here and
there with white. It is well worth while to feed the larve
and watch their transformations.

The dogbanes (Apocynum) are near relatives of milk-
weeds, and like them exude a milky juice when the stem or
leaves or pods are abraded. Kerner maintains that this
sticky exudation serves as a partial protection against
ants and other marauders whose sharp claws penetrate
the epidermis of the stem. The escaping milk soon
hardens and miresthefeet of the intruder. The dogbanes,
one of which has lovely pink bell-like flowers, are visited
by a very handsome beetle, green and gold, known as the
‘‘ silded dandy.”’

Of course man has attempted to utilize so fine a

106 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

product as the silk of these Asclepiads. The hairs are, .
however, too smooth to felt. If one looks at a cotton-
fibre under a microscope he will find it to be a flattened
ribbon-like band, more or less twisted on its own axis.
This quality permits each hair to stick to its neighbor and
greatly aids in weaving and such like processes. The milk-
weed hair, on the contrary, is a simple cylindrical, smooth
thread. Ifa method is ever found for using these fibres,
it seems as if any amount of plants could be grown. But
value would probably soon produce unexpected enemies.
Let a plant become of service to man, and at once it is
attacked by ten thousand enemies, incentives to make us
work and perhaps swear.

Some milkweeds are expert fly-catchers, or rather
butterfly-catchers. We have often seen insect visitors
caught bythe proboscis and hanging helpless as examples
to their kind. Cruelty is not confined, it seems, to cats or
small boys; even plants are not above it.

Brown University, Providence, R. I.

BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS--XAlI.

ORDER IV.—PRINCIPES.

The order Principes has scarcely more than afoot-hold
in North America, but so large and characteristic a group
is it in other parts of the world that we can scarcely omit
some notice of it in passing. The single family Palmacee,
the palms, of which there are more than a thousand
species make up this order. They are found most abund-
antlyin the warmer parts of the world and the individual
species are often very local in their distribution.

The Palmacez is the characteristic tree group of the
Monocotyledons. While afew species are nearly stemless,
the great majority assume the proportions of trees and no
really herbaceous species exist. There is also a vine-like
group, the rattan-palms, which scramble over other vege-
tation by means of hooks on the stems and are said to
sometimes reach a length of three hundred feet. The
aspect of the arborescent species is so well known that the

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 107

term palm-like is a common expression needing no explan-
ation. Though belonging to the Monocotyledons it may
not be amiss to again call attention to the fact that these
trees have no bark, and though often reaching a height of
seventy-five feet or more, the stems do not increase in
thickness by annual layers of wood. For some time after
a young plant appears from the seed the stem is quite
short but grows steadily in circumference. Whenit has
reached a proper size the bud begins to carry the stem up-
ward and as the species seldom put out branches, a tall
slender stem of uniform diameter is the result. The bud
continues to give off the great palmate or pinnate leaves
which form a green rosette at the summit. There. seems
to be no definite time for shedding the leaves, but each one
as death overtakes it droops downward on its petiole and
ultimately becomes loosened and falls tothe ground. The
stems of many species are shaggy with the remains of the
petioles and often very thorny as well, the thorns being
produced from the petioles or from the trunk itself.

The flowers are usually quite small, but are rather
better developed than those of preceding orders, there be-
ing usually a six-parted perianth easily distinguishable
into three sepals and a like number of petals, six stamens
and three carpels or a three-parted pistil. The perianth,
however, 1s quite inconspicuous, dull in color, leathery or
fleshy in texture and not much like petals and sepals in
appearance. The flowers are borne in a simple or com-
pound much branched spike which springs from the axil
of an enormous spathe. The flowers are rarely perfect,
the stamens and pistils occurring in separate flowers
though usuallyin the same inflorescence. The flowers are
mostly wind pollinated though a few are said to produce
a perfume and are therefore likely to attract insects. In
the species with perfect flowers self-pollination is prevented
by the stigmas ripening before the stamens.

The fruit is a berry, drupe or nut often of much com-
mercial importance. Familiar examples are the cocoanut
and date. The date is the fruit of the date-palm (Phoenix

108 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

dactylifera) but the cocoanut is really a seed, the husk ot
the fruit, corresponding to the edible part of the date, be-
ing stripped from it in the tropics before shipment. A
multitude of uses is found for other species by the inhabit-
ants of the Tropics and in such regions the order is of far
more importance than that containing the grasses which
people of temperate climes find so useful. From the
Palmacez are obtained lumber, thatch, sugar, sago, oil,
starch, fibre, and many edible fruits. It is interesting to
know that although the palms are found around the
world in warm regions, the species of the Old World are
almost without exception different from those found in
the Western Hemisphere.
ORDER V.—SYNANTH 2.

This order consists of the single family Cyclanthaceze
containing about fifty palm-like plants, natives of Tropi-
cal America. None are found in our territory and none
are remarkable for either beauty or use.

PLANTS WITH EXTRA-FLORAL NECTARIES.

The United States National Museum has recently
issued a most interesting volume on ‘‘ The Useful Plants
of the Island of Guam”’ by W. E. Safford who was for a
long time resident of the island. From his account of the
vegetation, we select the following on extra-floral nectar-
ies:

There are perhaps few localities which offer better
facilities for the observation of extra-floral nectaries.
Here, within a small area, growing not in conservatories,
but in a state of nature, may be observed a remarkably
large number of plants having glands on the midribs,
veins, petioles, or rachis of their leaves, or on the ped-
uncles, pedicels or sepals of their flowers. Among them
are species of Cassia, Erythrina and Acacia with stalked
disc or cup-like glands, and, belonging to the Euphor-
biaceze, the candle-nut and the well-known castor bean
with well marked nectaries at the junction of the blade
and petiole of the leaf.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 109

Many of the Euphorbiacez are provided with extra-
floral nectar glands which have been noticed by systemat-
ists as well as physiological botanists. They are found
on the stipules of Jatropa multifida and on the petiole at
the base of the leaf-blade of Aleurites molluccana. In a
paper by Percy Groom on the extra-floral nectaries of the
allied Aleurites cordata these petiolar nectaries are de-
scribed as follows:

‘‘Each nectary is a green-stalked, shallow basin, the
concavity of which is tintedred. The secreting cells which
line the basin form a singlelayer of palisade-like cells. The
general culticle is preserved over these and the secretion
emerges through splits init. The secreting cells contain
proteids, sugar, a red coloring matter (a compound of
tannin’), tannin but no starch. In the ground paren-
chyma starch tannin and crystals of calcic oxalate occur.
The conducting parenchyma contains sugar but no starch
or crystals. Darkening the nectaries of leaves on the
plant, or of excised leaves, or darkening the whole leaves,
caused a gradual disappearance of the starch, but the
nectaries continued to excrete for some time.’”’? Among the
Malvacee growing in Guam several are provided with
nectar-glands on the underside of the midrib. These are
most conspicuous in Urena sinuata occurring not only on
the midrib but sometimes on the main lateral ribs of the
palmate leaves. They also occur on all leaves of cotton
(Gossypium sp.) and on the midrib of Pariti tiliaceum in
the form of vaginate glands.

The sweet fluid secreted by these glands is eagerly
sought by sugar-loving insects and a number of authors
maintain that the power of secreting it has been specially
gained by plants for the sake of attracting ants and wasps
which will serve as defenders against caterpillars, leaf-
cutting insects or other enemies; but Darwin, after a
series of observations, could not see any reason to believe
this to be so with the species observed by him, although
the fact that these glands are visited by insects for the
sake of their nectar can be verified at any time of day

110 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

when the sun is shining and these insects must serve as a
protection for them. It is interesting to note that these
glands may occur in one species and be absent from an-
other closely allied to it, of the same genus. Indeed, there
are species in which the glands are present on some leaves
and absent from others and of their variability we have
already spoken in connection with Ricinus and Urena. On
this account Delpino argues that these glands ought not
to be regarded as excretory, since if they were so, they
would be more constant and would occur in every species.
Their variability is especially noticeable in the genus
Cassia where the tiny cup-shaped nectaries may be found
on the petioles of some species and onthe rachis of others,
but are absent from both in others. If they perform some
necessary function it is hard to believe that they would
not occur in all species. One thing is certain, they are
more highly developed and more active in the young and
tender leaves and about opening leaf-buds than on the
older and tougher leaves which are less tempting to herbi-
yorous animals, and more able to resist their attacks;
and whatever may be the truth regarding the presence of
these glands in general, Belt has shown conclusively that
the bull’s-horn acacia (Acacia spherocephala) of Central
America not only attracts stinging ants by its nectaries,
but offers them as an additional attraction, dainty food,
rich in oil and protoplasm in the form of small bodies at
the end of the divisions of the compound leaflets, which
the ants gather when ripe and carry to their homes in the
stout hollow thorns of the plant itself. The fruit-like
bodies do not ripen all at once, but successively, so that
the ants are kept about the young leaves for some time
after they are unfolded and Belt arrives at the conclusion
that ants are really kept by the acacia as a standing
army to protect its leaves from herbivorous mammals
and insects. In the same way there is a succession of
active nectaries about the tender young leaf-buds and
flower cluster of Ricinus which are constantly visited by
wasps and ants; and the important part played by the

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. EET

nectar glands in the petioles of the cotton leaf as an
attraction to ants which serve to protect the plant from
the boll weevil and other injurious insects has recently
awakened great interest and has been turned to economic
account.

POLLEN.

If we examine the flowers of any plant, it matters not
of what description, provided it be a true flowering plant,
we shall find associated with them, either as a powder or,
as inthe orchids, in a somewhat viscous mass, an immense
number of small grains which represent the pollen, 7. e.,
the male or fertilizing element. In some cases, however,
where the male and female flowers are separate, we must,
of course, only look to the former for this powder, while
the latter we shall find, as a rule, to be comparatively
inconspicuous. Thus in many of the Nut tribe we find the
male flowers associated in conspicuous catkins, accom-
panied by an abundance of pollen, this abundance being
necessary in order to secure the fertilization of the distant
female flowers by the aid of the wind, insect agency being
largely debarred owing to the absence of sufficiently obvi-
ous flowers fitted to attract them.

These grains, despite their minuteness, are very beauti-
ful objects under the microscope, and will repay examina-
tion, as they will be found to vary very greatly in size,
shape, make, and color, every species of flower having its
own distinguishing type. Their size would appear to be
correlated with the length of the stigma, or stalk, of the
female flower, so that in the lilies and evening primroses,
to take familiar examples, we shall find them of compara-
tively large size, while in short-stigmated flowers they are
much smaller. The brilliant carmine or orange-tinted
pollen grains of the lilies are especially beautiful objects,
even under an ordinary lens.

The reason of this correlation is a very simple one.
When the pollen grain is conveyed either by wind, insect,
or other agency to the stigma of the female flower, or

hs THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

portion of a flower, for in the majority of cases the flower
bears both kinds of organs, it becomes attached thereto
by virtue of a viscous or gummy secretion which holds it
fast. This done the pollen grain bursts, and a slender
tube issues from it which lengthens and traverses fine
channels between the cells of the stigma until it reaches
one of the embryo seeds at its base, which it at once fertil-
izes, and thus renders it capable of perfecting and produc-
ing a plant. Hence, it is clear that thelonger the required
tube the more material there must exist in the pollen
grain, and the correlation is explained.

We also see in this arrangement a bar to cross fertili-
zation between unfitted plants, but another and less
obvious bar exists in the fact that there is undoubtedly
some sympathetic action upon the proper pollen grain by
the viscous matter on the stigma which is lacking with
alien pollen of the wrong species. Some extremely inter-
esting experiments have been made in this direction by
immersing pollen grains in solutions of this stigmatic
gum, with, to some extent, very unexpected results, pollen
grains sometimes reponding freely by bursting in quite
foreign solutions, and yet failing in far more likely ones,
though not of their own exact species.

Such experiments are, of course, of great value to the
hybridists, but have the drawback that the necessary
length of tube formation isleft out ‘of the question, so that
a pollen grain might quite well be induced, as it were,
instantly to start form in its tube by misplaced stimulus,
and yet be quite unable to penetrate the full length of the
stigma, to say nothing of subsequent incompatibility as
regards the intricate process of fertilizing the seed. Each
embryo-sac or embryo-seed is only capable of being fertil-
ized by one pollen grain, and when we see such a seed-
vessel as that of the poppy, with its thousands of seeds,
each individually and separately attached to the walls or
compartment walls of the seed-vessel, and consider that
at least an equal number of pollen grains, and probably a
far greater number, become attached to the broad ribbed

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. TES

stigmatic disc which we see inthe centre of the flower, and
that yet, after some preliminary struggle for precedence,
only an equal number of tubes must have traveled down-
wards and found their way unerringly to perhaps every
seed in the capsule, we cannot fail to be struck with
wonder and admiration at the arrangement which can
admit of all this without a shadow of confusion.

This, however, is a minor wonder as compared with
the pollen grain itself. Their number, as we have seen, is
simply enormous in many instances, and very large in all,
and yet in every one, tiny as they may be, there is bound
up not merely the potencies of the entire parental plant,
but also of its ancestors, and if, as well may be, that plant
has been cross bred at any time, two or more sets of
ancestral potencies will be lying latent, and be capable of
asserting themselves when fertilization is completed.
Notwithstanding this innate complexity, the bulk of the
grain is, as we have seen, devoted merely to tube forma-
tion, and hence, at the time of fertilization, nothing is left
buta single microscopic cell, which it has been the function
of the tube to convey.

This cell, the biologist will tell us, is really only half a
cell as regards the normal cell contents, and the embryo
cell in the seed-vessel is similarly halved. It is this prelim-
inary halving which renders fertilization necessary, and
the act of fertilization consists in the union of the two
halves into one complete cell, which is thus rendered cap-
able of growing, dividing, and multiplying, and building
up first a seed and then a plant. Inasmuch as the half
cells of the embryo seed are equally endowed with parental
and ancestral potencies, the perfected seed contains both
sets, and its subsequent development into a plant is deter-
by some sort of subtle adjustment, which in the case of
cross-bred plants, leads to immense variety, and yields our
selective cultivators many of their richest prizes.—Indian
Planting and Gardening.

~
a

WANTED.—Short notes of interest to the general bot-
anist are always in demand for this department. Our
readers are invited to make this the place of publication
for their botanical items.

A BEE-PLANT FOR STERILE SoOILs.—When the Chicago
drainage channel was dug, the material excavated formed
a ridge nearly forty miles long and from fifty to a hundred
feet high. Few plants grow upon these great piles of
rock, but the sweet clover seems to find some parts a
congenial home and thrives in spite of the dryness. An
enterprising individual has recently begun fostering the
spread of this plant for the honey it affords his bees. In
the vicinity of the drainage channel there are hundreds of
acres of sterile soil which may ultimately be turned into
pasturage for bees and thus be made to yield a return not
inferior to that from better land planted to field crops.

~

ay Note and @CorsmrHent.

SEX OF INDIAN TuRNIP.—Readers of this magazine need
hardly be told that the inflorescence of the Indian turnip
or Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arise#ma triphyllum) is not a single
flower, but a number of flowers clustered at the base ofa
thick spadix and surrounded bya colored bract or spathe,
but possibly some do not know that these small and
inconspicuous flowers are likely to be of two sorts—stam-
inate and pistillate—and that while some flower clusters
may have both pistillate and staminate blossoms, the
majority are usually of one sex. It has often been stated
that the sex of the plants can be determined by the color
of the spathe, those with the deepest color being pistillate
and the others staminate. An examination of a series of
plants, however, will show that this rule has many ex-
ceptions. The real distinction seems to be due to the
general rule among plants thatin species of two sexes, the
more robust specimens are likely to be pistillate or female,
and the weaklings to be staminate or male.

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. L165

CHRYSANTHEMUM SMOKING.— The chrysanthemum
now has something else to do besides look pretty. Accord-
ing to The Gardening World the petals have been recently
recommended as a harmless substitute for smoking-
tobacco. A medical journal goes still further and asserts
that the smoking of chrysanthemum petals is very bene-
ficial in dyspepsia and cites a case in which an epileptic
patient has been nearly cured by this treatment. This
news ought to strengthen the chrysanthemum market. A
flower that may be worn till it wilts and still be worth
the original price as smoking material is indeed unique.

CORRELATION OF COLOR.—We commonly think of the
color of flowers, only, but the color of stems, leaves, fruits
and seeds are usually so closely correlated with that of the
flower that one may usually select the plants that will
bear pale or deeply colored flowers from a batch of seed-
lings as soon as they begin to grow; indeed, they may
often be selected before the seeds are sown. In bulbous
plants the bulbs with colored scales will produce the
flowers of deepest color. By keeping this in mind when
setting out plants that bear flowers of more than one
color, such as phlox, one may avoid getting all the flowers
of the same color together.

THE MARKINGS OF FLOWERS.—In a letter to the
editor, Mr. John H. Lovell observes that actinomorphic,
or regular flowers, are rarely lined or spotted. The
regular flowers are visited by a great variety of insects
and apparently can dispense with honey-guides. The
zygomorphice or irregular flowers are patronized by fewer
insects and these are nearly always directed to the nectar
by lines or spots orboth. Some regular flowers, however,
are lined and Mr. Lovell instances the wood sorrel (Oxalis
acetosella) and various members of the saxifrage family.
An additional instance can be cited in the spring beauty.
Green flowers are generally without markings but the
white hellebore (Veratrun viride) is marked if our remem-
brance of the flowers is correct. Who can supply other
instances ?

T16 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

OpoR OF HowNp’s-TONGUE.—It may be questioned
whether all flowers have not an appreciable odor to the
insects that visit them. We are inclined to assume that
because certain flowers have no odorsthat are perceptible
to us, they have no odors perceptible to other members of
ereation. It frequently happens, however, that flowers
we have set down as odorless are really not so, our mis-
take arising from the fact that perfume from single flowers
is too faint to be perceived by our senses. In such cases,
one may often detect the odor by picking a bunch and
smelling of them inthe mass. The hound’s-tongue (Cyno-
glossum officinale) well illustrates this. There are few
individuals with senses keen enough to notice the odor of
single blossoms, but in a bunch the flowers have a strong,
musky, mouse-like odor. This is apparently well liked by
the bees for during the season of bloom it attracts great
numbers of these insects.

CHANGE OF COLOR IN FLOWERS.—The changes in color
which many flowers undergo during the time they are in
bloom are so striking as to be well known. Among these
may be mentioned the change of the white wake-robin
(Trilium grandiflorum) from white to pink, the change of
the blue-bell (Mertensia Virginica) from pink buds to deep
blue flowers and the honeysuckle from white to yellow.
Many less conspicuous changes in flowers are fully as
interesting if we take the trouble tolook them up. Many
of these changes are concerned with the honey guides and
are doubtless of service to visiting insects by indicating to
them the age of the flower. A striking example of this is
found in the horse-ehestnut which Gray says—incorrectly
—has a white corolla spotted with yellow and purple. As
a matter of fact the petals each havea single spot at the
base. The flower opens with these spots pale lemon-
yellow, but they change rapidly to orange, then brick red,
and end by being of adeep purple, not the purple of grapes
and lilacs, but the purple in which there is a blood-red
tint. Another instance may be found in so common a
plant as the toad flax (Linaria vulgaris) in which the pale

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. Ba ie

yellow flowers have, when young, a palate of a deeper
shade of yellow, this changing later to the deepest shade
of orange. It would be interesting to make a list of the
flowers in which the whole flower changes color, and
another in which the spots and lines of the flower do so.
The first list may be started by the hound’s-tongue which
changes from dull red to purplish, and the bush honey-
suckle (Dierviila trifida) which changes from yellow te
orange. Whocan add others?

FERNS FOR OrcHiIDS.—The Ames Botanical Labora-
tory, North Easton, Mass., has duplicates of some rare
Florida ferns which are offered in exchange for orchids.
Further particulars may be obtained by addressing the
Laboratory stating what species can be furnished.

Potsonous HONEY FROM Poppies.—According to a
writer in a bee-keepers’ journal, bees that have free access
to a large number of poppies may be destroyed by the
narcotic principle of the plants. In one instance eight
colonies were destroyed in this way. The question
whether or not certain flowers secrete poisonous nectar
has often come up for discussion without being certainly
settled. The mountain laurel and various other heaths
have been suspicioned. If the bass-wood, clover and buck-
wheat can each add an unmistakable flavor to the nectar
it produces, it seems possible for poisonous plants to add
more or less of their noxious elements.

POLYPODIUM FIBRE.—Growers of orchids often make
use of a potting material made from the rootstocks of the
bracken (Pteris) or the cinnamon ferns (Osmunda) and
now according to an advertisement in The Gardening
World an enterprising inhabitant of Germany is offering
polypodium fibre made from the rootstocks of the common
polypody (Polypodium vulgare) for the same purpose.
The bracken and cinnamon ferns often grow in such quan-
tity that the use of their rootstocks as potting material
is scarcely likely to cause them to be exterminated, but if
polypody fibre ever becomes the fashion in this country we
may soon expect to place the common polypody among
the rarities.

ee a o_o oe .

& een cb ce

—_—eores

After trying for a year the experiment of issuing
colored plates in every other number of this magazine, we
have decided to change this by substituting a black and
white plate in every number. The first of these plates
appears in this issue and is one of a series made especially
for us. They wili, in so far as possible, illustrate the less
familiar aspects of our wild flowers and should thus prove
of interest to every reader whether he be botanist or bot-
anizer. In the forth-coming volume we shall also begin a
series of illustrated articles on the pollination of flowers
which will contribute some new facts on this interesting
subject. The articles on plant families inthe ‘‘ Botany for
Beginners” series will be continued, and with these things
in view, not to mention the other valuable contributions
that will appear, we feel that we are warranted in asking
not only the continued support of our present readers but
an active interest in making the magazine known to
others. It now needs but afew more subscribers to cause
another increase in the size of the magazine. Your aid in
bringing this about will be greatly appreciated.

* *

*

We are indebted to the Open Court Publishing
Company, of Chicago, for a framing portrait of Professor
DeVries whose book on the origin of species and varieties
by mutation is attracting so much attention. The
portrait is platino finish 10 by 12 inches in size and sells
for $1.00. It will be a desirable addition to school-room
or study.

* 2 %

Messrs. Williams, Brown and Earle, whose advertise-
ment appears in every issue of this magazine, have lately
brought out a Reflecting Lantern by the use of which
illustrations from books, plain or colored sketches,
mechanical models, etc., may be shown upon a screen

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 119

exactly as is done with lantern slides. Colored plates
from books are shown in their natural colors. This
attachment will fit any lantern and seems destined to
work a revolution in the illustration of lectures, etc., since
prints, photographs and plates from any source can be
used.

BOOKS AND WRITERS.

The editorial and publication offices of Floral Lite
have been recently moved from Philadelphia to Spring-
field, Ohio.

Houghton, Mifflin & Co. announce the publication of
Pi. oy pareent’s “Manual of the Trees: of North
America’”’ with 644 illustrations, and of the first fascicle
of Oakes Ames’ ‘‘ Orchidacee.”’

The Fern Bulletin has recently issued a very complete
index to the first ten volumes, compiled by B. D. Gilbert.
The great activity in fern study that was manifested
during the ten years covered by the index is shown by
the fact that more than five hundred signed articles are
listed. In the index to species two thousand references
are given, notwithstanding the fact that no reference is
made to species mentioned in the magazine unless some-
thing definite is said of them. The index covers thirty-two
pages and costs 25 cents.

The Wellington Field Naturalist Club, of Guelph,
Ontario, formerly conducted a department in the Guelph
Herald. This has now been abandoned, for an annual
publication called The Ontario Natural Science Bulletin.
The first issue (for 1905) contains 48 pages of well printed
information upon the fauna and flora of Ontario. The
biology of this region is still imperfectly known and the
articles are therefore mainly lists of species and notes on
distribution. . Mr. A.B. Klugh, an occasional contributor
to our columns is the editor. The price of the number is
25 cents.

120 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST.

There is an individuality about thetrees not possessed
by lesser forms of vegetation and this doubtless accounts
for the large number of books about trees that have
appeared within the past few years. A handy volume on
the British arborescent flora for comparison with these is
Step’s ‘‘Wayside and Woodland Trees.”’ This appears to
have had a great vogue on the other side having already
reached a second impression. The plan of the book is the
same as that followed in previous books by this author,
there being 185 illustrations of the trees with their leaves
and fruit. In most instances views of the trunk at close
quarters, as well as the tree as a whole, are shown, the
leaves and fruit being given in separate illustrations. The
text is ofa popular nature. The points by which the trees
may be known are dwelt upon, but for the most part the
things that make the trees attractive to the rambler have
first place. (New York, Frederick Warne & Co., $1.75
ATOL:)

The Iris has justly been called ‘‘the poor man’s
orchid.”’ No other flower is at once so orchid-like and so
varied in showy coloring. A majority of the species are
quite hardy and when once planted willgrow and increase
in beautyfor years. The cultural features of these flowers
are discussed at great length in ‘‘ The Book of the Iris’’
by Irwin Lynch, which is the twenty-first volume in John
Lane’s ‘‘ Handbooks of Practical Gardening.’”’ Beginning
with the structure and Natural history of the iris flower,
the author takes up the iris garden, and the general culti-
vation of the various divisions of thegenus. There is also
chapters on hybrids and diseases of the plants. The
greater part of the book, however, is devoted to a descrip-
tion ofallthe species, varieties and hybrids with directions
for cultivating each. A series of excellent keys will enable
the cultivator to identify his specimens. There are up-
wards of two hundred pages in the book and thirty-six
illustrations. (New York, John Lane, 1904, $1.00.)

sum aay
AM

“THE PLANT WORLD *

go }? Issues

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An ones Monthly Magazine of Popular Botany. Established 1897.

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‘and the advanced worker.

Edited by Francis E. Lloyd, Professor of Botany,

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NEW YORK.

articles on Lichens and Hepatics. The Mosses will
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Fully illustrated. 20 pa-
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Torrey’s Flora of New York

We have a fine copy of this magnificent
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. RH ODORA A high Pox Power Magnifier

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BOTANICAL CLUB

RT ee

A monthly journal of botany devoted
chiefly to the flora of the northeastern
states. Edited by Dr. B. L. Robinson,
Messrs. M. L. Fernald, F. S. Collins, Hol-
lis Webster and Edward L. Rand. To
all interested in the study of the plants
of the eastern states, Rhodora will be of
great assistance. . It aims to interest the
the amateur as weil as the professional
botanist and is of far more than local
value. Sixth year. Price $1 .0O per year.
(Vol, I $1. 50) Sample copy on xyvalpe
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300 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, lass.

AT A LOW PRICE

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The Fern Allies of North Arar

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Lie # Tuis book is a: companion volume to ‘‘Our Ferns in %
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“THE NATURE- STUDY REVIEW.

Devoted to all Phases of Nature-Study
in Elementary Schools.

No. 1, published January 20, 1905, deals with all the
‘“‘natural-science’’ studies of common schools.
Bi-monthly. Forty-eight pages. Illustrated.

Edited by L. H. Bailey (Agriculture), H. W. Fairbanks
(Geography), C. F. Hodge (Biology), J. F. Woodhull
(Physical Science), M. A. Bigelow (Biology, Managing
Editor). Over sixty collaborators from schools and
colleges.

Subscription, $1. per volume (year). 20 cents per copy.

Trial Subscription to first half of 1905 volume for 30
cents (stamps.) Sample copy for 6 cents.

Mention The American Botanist.

THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW,
525 West 120th Street. | New York City.

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