56 



ing on the border of a reedy marsh at the foot of a sandy railroad 

 embankment, the filling in of which had somewhat altered the natu- 

 ral soil, perhaps causing the peculiar freak above described. 



Eugene P. Bicknell. 



Riverdale, N. Y. City, April w, 1880. 



Salix and Rubus.— I have just sent you, by mail, some speci- 

 mens showing a curious case of metamorphosis in Salix (6'. cordata, 

 Muhl?). They were collected near Plainfield, during May, 1879. 

 The change of stamens into pistils is not, I believe, very rare in this 

 genus, but here we have pistils passing into stamens through various 

 gradations. There seems in these specimens to be a tendency in the 

 ovary to separate into as many parts as there are stigmas, namely, 

 four, forming as many imperfect ovaries ; or one or more of the 

 parts changing into stamens more or less perfect. The stalk of the 

 ovary will thus often bear four branches, some of these being sta- 

 mens and others ovaries. The anthers are sometimes attached to the 

 side of an imperfect ovary. 



I have also sent you a specimen of Rubus Cafiadensis ? L*, col- 

 lected in a sandy field at Plainfield, during May, 1879. The flower 

 has a strong tendency to revert to a leafy branch. The sepals are 

 perfect leaves, are cut-serrate and even-lobed, and the stamens have 

 changed into petals more or less perfect. All the plants growing 

 near this one were found to have the same habit. 



Frank Tweedy. 



Maple with triple samara — One of the sugar-maples in Broad- 

 way, Saratoga, has three keys to the fruit, in a large proportion of 

 the latter. These keys are regularly disposed at an angle of 120'*, 

 and are in all respects normal, save as to number. All those col- 

 lected by me had two or three seed-vessels excavated by a squirrel, 

 and it turned out that the uninjured key was empty. The ordinary 

 2-keyed fruit of this species usually has one of the seeds abor- 

 tive, and the squirrel is aware of this fact, though some of the books 

 seem to have forgotten it. 



The triple fruit of this tree is instructive as pointing to Staphyka 

 (the bladder- nut), the horse-chestnut, and other allied genera 

 which have fruit mostly with three divisions (or 2 or i by suppres- 

 sion), A 3-celled ovary is characteristic of Sapindaceae, to which 

 these plants are now referred, and thus the triple samara of the 

 maple may be regarded as not a case of pure monstrosity, as much 

 as a reversion to the ordinal type. If it be true, as I was informed, 

 that another tree near Saratoga presents the same peculiarity, the 

 case is all the more striking, as showing a tendency towards rever- 



sion. 



G. M 



Samaras of Maple,— ^r^r dasycarpum, Ehr., has nearly always 

 one of Us seeds and keys abortive. From one to six of the fruits in 

 each raceme of Acer Pseudo-Platanus will usually be found to consist 

 of three (very rarely four) samaras. The fruits at the base of the 

 raceme, as well as the terminal one are those that generally exhibit 

 this peculiarity. W R G 



