10 
_ Raphanus Raphanistnan^ L,— A double seed-pod was found, with 
each of the divisions perfect and filled with seeds, but united at the 
base and having a common stalk. 
** Twin " apples were unusually numerous during the past autumn. 
These offer excellent examples of syncarpy, or the adhesion of fruits. 
Houghton Farm, Mountainville, N. Y, 
W, E. Stone. 
Botanical Notes, 
The Ligiiified Snake from Brazil. — In a brief note in the Decem- 
ber number of the Bulletin, Dr. Gray, referring to an illustrated 
account of a lignified snake published in our November number, 
expressed an opinion that there was no snake in the case, and stated 
that, at the moment of writing, he had not time to offer the two 
credible explanations of the phenomenon that had suggested them- 
selves to him. In the current number of the American Journal of 
Science we find these two explanations given, and we quote them 
herewith; 
** Through the kindness of the Brazilian Minister," says, Dr. Gray, 
"we have seen and examined the original specimen, and have been 
presented with an electrotype of it. It is a great curiosity. The 
resemblance to a snake is wonderfully close, although * the scales 
and cephalic plates,' which M. Olivier identifies with those of a par- 
ticular Brazilian snake, exist only in a lively imagination. The 
snake-like surface is covered by delicate meshes of woody fibres; and 
here and there particular fibres of woody threads can be traced 
from the body to the woody surface. The adopted explanation re- 
quires us to suppose that a snake had forced his way between the 
bark and the wood of a living tree in a position exactly under a 
grub or a larva; had perished there when within half an inch of its 
was somehow preserved from decay, even to the eye-sockets 
and the markings of the skin, until a woody growth had formed, the 
elements of which replaced the whole superficial structure of the 
an im al- 
to 
prey 
until the animal was lignified ! 
Two other and 
more probable explanations have suggested 
themselves. One is that the snake-like body is of the nature of a 
root, an aerial root, like those of a Clusia or a Ficus^ which was 
making its way between bark and wood; and that the supposed larva 
is an incipient root of the same kind. The other supposes that the 
sinuous course is the track of a.wood-eating larva or some. kind of 
insect, the burrowing of which had not destroyed the overlying 
liber: consequently the new growth filling the space (except at cer- 
tain points) has naturally assumed the likeness of a snake. This 
explanation was suggested by Professor Wadsworth, of Cambridge, 
examining the specimen along with the writer; and it is to be pre- 
ferred. Still, that head and neck should be so well outlined, and 
the former so well represent a pair of orbits, were surely most won- 
derful. But a close inspection of the electrotype showed that there 
had been some cutting away at the right side of the neck, and that 
the narrowing there was in part factitious; and less decisive indica- 
tions suggested that other outlines had been touched up. The sub- 
