327 
His universal and ardent interest in all flowering forms, as well as 
his extensive knowledge and the sympathetic communication of it 
were such as to enkindle in others a similar interest and zeal; and for 
the loss of men possessing this inspiring quality science will always 
grieve. As he was fond of referring to, and quoting the sayings of 
his great teacher, the lamented Dr. Torrey, no little of whose spirit 
and influence he caught and transmitted, so also will many of the 
younger members of the Club, to whom Dr. Torrey is personally 
unknown, find in the memory and example of Mr. Ruger a similar 
incentive and inspiration. A. B. 
§ 335. Trapanatans,—A living specimen of this curious and 
interesting aquatic plant has been recently sent us by Dr. Allen, taken, 
we believe, by Dr. Paine from a pond near Concord, Mass. Prof. 
Sargent states that it is getting common in the ponds and stagnant 
waters about Cambridge, and threatens to become a nuisance. As it 
has not until recently been found in English or American waters, it 
is not described in any of the English or American manuals, and 
some account of it may be found useful. 
The plant is common in the warm and temperate parts of Europe 
and Asia. It is common in the ponds about Versailles, but is said 
never to have been naturalized in England. By European botanists 
it has been usually classed with the Onagraceae. Its affinity, how- 
ever, is rather with the Halorageae, from which it differs chiefly in 
its hemispherical stigma and ex-albumninous embryo. In the Gen- 
eral Botany of Le Maout and De Caisne the Trapeae are made a 
distinct order, with but a single genus, Trapa; and the species natans 
is there figured with the fulness and beauty of anatomical detail 
which characterize that work. 
“The name of ‘ Trapa,’ says Paxton, is abridged from cadcitrapa, 
the Latin name of an instrument called caltrop, (the Roman tribu- 
lus) furnished with four spines, formerly used in war to impede the 
progress of cavalry, the fruit of some of the species of Trapa being 
furnished with four spines. ‘The same author mentions four species, 
bicornis, bispinosa, quadrispinosa and zatans; all, except the last, 
found only in China and the East Indies. The large seeds of T. dzs- 
pinosa are sweet and edible : they form an extensive article of culti- 
vation. In Cashmere and other parts of the East they are common 
food and known under the name of Singhara nuts. 
Trapa natans roots in the mud of stagnant or slow waters. The 
submerged stem rises to the surface, and of course varies in length 
with the depth of the water ; the specimen sent us was about four 
feet long, thickly beset with leaves mostly opposite, pectinately dis- 
sected, and having the appearance of rootlets. The stem ends at the 
surface of the water, where it sends forth a thick and spreading 
rosette of leaves, which is often a foot in diameter, floating just 
above the surface. The leaves have stout, spongy petioles from two 
to six inches long, with the blade coriaceous and rhomboidal, or loz- 
enge-shaped, from a half inch to an inch and a half long, with a 
breadth somewhat greater, the base entire, the upper edges coarsely 
dentate, smooth and shining above and strongly ribbed beneath. A 
