92 
4 
fishing for black bass. Our exploration had, therefore, to be done on 
foot, and so we tramped for nearly one-half a mile through a wide 
swamp on the border of the pond. The plants noted and collected 
here were: Sarracenia purpurea, L., and Frunus Virginiana, L., (in 
/ 
Menyanihes trifoliaL 
flava, L., (over ripe), C (Edet 
(in good condition) and Bromus Kaimh\ Gray. Of these, two 
[Rhynchospora capillacea, Torr., and Carex CEderi, Ehrh.) are new to 
the flora of New Jersey. Carex flava, L., was collected years ago by 
the late Dr. A. P, Garber in Sussex County, where he also obtained 
Lobelia Kalmii, L., but the latter was sought for in vain. The results 
of my visit to the charming lakelet gave me so much pleasure that I 
mean to see more of it at an early day. 
Easton, Penn. Thos. C. Porter, 
Sweet Cicely as a Bur.— Yesterday, while rambling among the 
shady ravines and hillsides of the Virginia shore of the Potomac, and 
immediately above this city, I observed that my clothing was bristling 
with slender, spindle-shaped burs, some of which made their presence 
felt by penetrating to my skin, Spanish needles! I said; but no, I 
had not seen the plant that day, A glance showed that they were 
the linear fruits of Osmorr/iiza loiigistylis^ very abundant there, its 
foliage AvhoUy gone and leaving the dry branching stalks loaded with 
fruit which only needed to be touched to be shaken off, and through 
dense patches of which I had been walking. I had never been thus 
troubled before and my curiosity \vas excited, as I was not aware of 
this bur-like nature of the sweet cicely. It was useless to remove 
the burs till I had wholly left the place, when I made a business of it. 
On carefully examining the seeds after I reached home I easily 
discovered the secret. The narrowed base of each fruit terminates 
in a sharp spinous point, and this is backwardly bearded with stiff, 
white bristles, closely simulating in form and function the grains of 
some Aristidas and other grasses. Wondering why I had not always 
known this, I at once turned to the books to see how the authors had 
described this peculiarity. To my great surprise I was unable to find 
any distinct mention in any work at my hand of this, certainly the 
most striking character of the genus. Bentham and Hooker's '' Fruc- 
tiis * * * basi longius attenuatus; carpella * * * sursum 
ciliata " certainly does not describe it. Gray says: *' Fruit * * 
tapering downwards into a stalk like base * * * the carpels 
with upivardly bristly ribs;*' while Chapman contents himself by 
merely mentioning the *' carpels with bristly ribs." It seems clear 
that the function of these bristles and the narrowed base, as a means 
of distribution like other burs, cannot have been present to the minds 
of any of these authors, and I write this partly to ask where the dis- 
covery of this function in Osmorr/iiza has been formally announced, 
if anywhere. , 
The barb being at the base of the seed, or at the point of attach- 
ment to the plant, it is necessary that it shall first drop off^ yf% 
pend upon finding the distributing agent in the course of its fall o 
