35 



species) have filiform leaves below the surface of the water, and 

 spreading leaves above. The floating heart, frog's-bit, duck-weed, 

 pond-lily, Marsilia^ etc., with their hanging roots, or slender stems, 

 .present no opposing surface to water. Polygomim aquaticum^ v^ithits 

 float-like leaves at the ends of long and^ slender petioles, is not likely 

 to be torn from its place of growth, however swift the current. 



The form and arrangement of the leaves of conifers and heaths 

 are well adapted to wind-swept regions. The conifers grow in the 

 highest Alpine regions the world over, where they are subjected to 

 the most violent winds and storms; but their leaves, being so very 

 small and unusually well secured to the branches, ofler but little re- 

 sistance .to the winds. The winds that set the oaks, elms and maples 

 in an uproar pass over the pine, larch, and spruce with a whisper. 

 On the wind-swept moors and downs of England the fine-leaved 

 heaths grow in the greatest profusion. 



Possibly it might be worth while for some botanists to consider 

 why each family or species of plants has leaves of a shape peculiar to 

 itself, and why some other form would not do as well, keej^ing in 

 view the plant's place of growth and the work it has to. do. The 

 function of leaves as depositories of food and moisture, and that of 

 bulb-scales, bud-scales, spines, tendrils, pitchers, fly-traps, etc., has 

 been well explained, but are there not some other interesting general- 

 izations that are known to some botanists and which have not been 

 made known to botanists at large ? 



The thick and glossy leaves of the Ericaceae, the much-divided 

 leaves of the Umbelliferae, the thick and succulent leaves of many 

 salt-marsh plants, and other well-known facts, suggest questions 

 which are not easily answered in a satisfactory manner by one man ; 

 but, by the mouths of many witnesses, the design of some leaf-forms 



may be established. 



Do the rings of beets show growth during any definite period 



of time } 



Roxbury. Mass. 



H. L. Clapp. 



Gleanings in Westchester County— In October,- 1880, I stum^ 



bled upon a small cluster of Aster a?ne{hystimis,l>i\x\.t., ^ihonihdXi b, 

 mile North of Wood-Lawn Cemetery, on a new road leading to 

 Mount Vernon. Several species of Aster were growing near by, but 

 I failed to find this one in any other place, though I searched for it 

 through fields and along road-sides for a mile or more around. 



In July, 1881, I found Scirpus sylvaiicus, L., and MelantJuum 

 Virginiciim, L., in a small bog about a rnile East of Tarrytown. 

 In neglected yards and gardens within the village proper, 6"^////^^,?^^ 



Yonkers. N. Y. 



E. C. Howe, 



A Query — Can any reader of the Bulletin forward proof that 



* Dr. Gray, in comparing 



Kniesk 



it with C. Sullivantii, says : " Pefigynia glabrous and more evidently 

 nerved." Dewey (in Wood) refers to an '' oblong achenium." Now, 

 C Sullivaniii has an oblong achenium, but it is always abortive. ■ Dr. 



