139 



marked with the letter 'B ' to indicate a boundary. This mark had 

 been made, according to custom, with a red-hot iron, which had 

 penetrated the tree to some depth. When the tree was chopped up 

 the mark was still very prominent on the surface of the bark. A 

 blow of the axe given by the woodman parallel with the axis of the 

 trunk, in the external region of the ^ sap- wood,' revealed two abso- 

 lutely plain surfaces, neither of which bore a trace of the letter; but, 

 a second cut, made a little further toward the centre, brought to light 

 a mark ^B' identical with the one presented by the surface of the 

 bark itself/* We omit the engraving furnished by Mr. Olivier to 

 illustrate this case, and substitute therefor a cut showing (one-jfifth 

 the natural size), an analogous example which was exhibited by Mr. 

 J. D. Hyatt at the September meeting of the Torrey Club. Mr. 

 Hyatt stated that the specimen shown was obtained by Mr, E. C. 

 Morrison in the northern part of Michigan, while making a survey 

 last winter for a railway whose route lay through a section of country 

 entirely covered with forest. During the progress of his work Mr. 



Morrison frequently found it necessary 

 to verify certain points of the survey 

 by hunting up the trees showing the 

 nearly obliterated scars made by the 

 Government surveyors many years ago 

 in dividing the country up into town- 



ships 



or "sections.'* 



Upon 



removmg 



the wood-growth which covered the 

 '* blaze " made by these surveyors, he 

 found the record in most cases per- 

 fectly preserved, while the figures and 

 letters, from being filled in by young 

 wood-cells, were exactly copied in 

 relief (as shown in the cut) upon the 

 inner surface of the succeeding annual 

 layer. The specimen figured, which 

 was taken from a hemlock, does not exhibit a complete record, inas- 

 much as the entire surface of the " blaze " has not been covered by 

 new wood; but Mr, Morrison obtained other examples in which the 

 record was perfect, the date revealed being 1842, and the layers of 

 growth corresponding exactly with the number of years which has 

 since elapsed. 



Floral Proliflcation in Gratiola- 



n Berlin. Mass.. a number of spe 



Wheele 



have regular flowers, with from two to three corollas enclosed one 

 within the other after the manner of those of the '' hose in hose" 

 variety of the primrose {^Primula acatdis). In some cases the 

 innermof-t corolla is tubular like the outer ones, but in others it is 

 polypetalous. A vertical section of the flowers shows that the mul- 

 tiplication of the parts is due to median proliflcation. Dr. Mas- 

 ters (Vegetable Teratology) gives Scrophulariaceae as one of the 

 orders in which this sort of change is apt to occur, 



Mr. Wheeler remarks that in the locality where these specimens 

 were found no flowers were observed last year, and but i^\v this, the 

 plants having been kept cropped by cattle. 



