153 



mens, I should think enough to fill a quart solid. It was soft, and 

 inside had the color and consistency of stiff starch when cold. This, 

 too, was in yellow ferruginous sand. 



Freehold, N. J. S. Lockwood. 



Preservative for Fungi,— Three years ago I invented what I 

 think a very good and cheap liquid for the preservation of fungi^ 

 composed of the following ingredients : 4^ ounces ol common salt ; 

 5 ounces of pulverized akuB, and 1 quart of white wine vinegar. 

 Mix thoroughly and keep in a wide-mouthed glass jar. Brush off 

 any dirt that clings to the fungus, and drop the freshly gathered 

 plant into the liquid. 



I have beside me a large jar of plants that were collected in the 

 summer of 1879. rh^y ^re now in a perfect state of preservation. 

 They have diminished somewhat in size, but their structure is pre- 

 served, and the larvae are effectually destroyed. The liquid often 

 gets filled with sediment and flouiting particles, to free it from which 

 I pour it off, strain it through a piece of thin muslin and return it to 

 the plants. 



Baltimore, Md. Mary E. Banning. 



Note on Grasses. — In a letter just received from Dr. Bentham 



he states that Polypogon is restored to its former place in Agrostideae. 



I will add to my notes in the November Bulletin that Lepturus 



paniculatiis^ Nutt., is a Schcdonnardiis^^ Steud,, and follows Gymno- 



pogon. Lepturus Bolanderi^ Thurb., is, I think, a true Lepturus, R. 



Br., and follows Triticum 

 Philadelphia. 



F. L. SCRIBNER. 



Botanical Notes. — An Electrified Lily. — During a storm at Mont- 

 maurin, in the Upper Garonne, says La Nature^ M. F. Laroque 

 witnessed a curious electric plienomenon. Looking toward a clump 

 of lilies, he saw the highest immersed in a diffused violet light, which 

 formed an aureole around the corolla. This light lasted for eight or 

 ten seconds. After it had ceased, he approached the lily and found, 

 to his great surprise, that it was wholly deprived of its pollen, while 

 the neighboring flowers were covered with it. 



Night-dosing in the Leaves of Purslane, — Mr. Meehan notes 

 {^Proceedings Philada. Acad. Sci.) that, in the list of plants having 

 diurnal or nocturnal motion, Portulaca oleracea does not appear. At 

 sundown the leaves, at other times at right angles with the stem, rise 

 and press their upper surfaces against it. The morning expansion 

 begins with dawn, and soon after sunrise the leaves are fully expanded. 

 Mr. Isaac Burk has observed the same thing not only in Portulaca, 

 but also in an allied plant of the West Indies, 2 alinum patens, 



Rhus cotinoides, — Since its discovery by Nuttall, in the year 18 19, 

 in Arkansas, and twenty-three years later by Prof. Buckley, in North 

 Alabama, Rhus cotinoides, Nutt., has not been found by any other 

 botanist, and our knowledge of it has remained fragmentary and 



obscure. 



After having been lost to the botanical world for fully forty years, 



