119 
gravelly margins of lakes and pools where it is ordinarily covered 
with water. Gray's Manual gives June and July as its flowering sea^ 
son, but I have never seen it even in bud before August, and I do 
not think it is jn pod (and therefore in the best state for examination 
and identification) before September. 
Annie Trumbull Slosson, 
h 
r 
r 
Immediate Influence of Crossinci or Hybridizing on Fruits and 
Seeds — Much writing, though few experiments, has been offered lately 
on this subject. Anxious to go, myself, over experiments recorded 
in the early part of the century in relation to sterility in hybrid Ver- 
bascums, I crossed Verbascum Blattaria with V. Thapsus the past 
summer. I need not go over the precautions taken to prevent the 
use of self pollen — every one of experience knows how to make these 
precautions absolutely certain in their results. Again, I may note 
that the seeds of these two species are very distinct as seen under a 
lens. Thapsus has gray seeds, which taper as if they were the ends 
of corn-cobs — those of Blattaria are dark brown, and in form as if 
they came from the middle portion of an ear of corn. The hybrid 
seed-vessel and the hybrid seeds were exactly those of its female 
parent, V. Blattaria. I have plants growing, and shall have to wait 
another year to know if they are sterile, but that is another question. 
But as we know that there is an immediate effect on the seed in cross- 
ing in Indian corn, the Verbascum experiment simply shows one more 
case where there is none. 
Thomas Meehan. 
Teratological- — I have seen, this year, a common cooking-bean 
with three cotyledons ; also, within a few days, a horsechestnut 
bur containing three perfect seeds. 
W. W. Bailey. 
Rudbeckia. — I see by Dr. Gray's Synopsis, just received, that 
what I figured as Rudbeckia fulgida in my Flowers and Ferns he re- 
gards as R, speciosa. What I have said about R. fulgida in my note 
on page 94 of the Bulletin refers to his speciosa. 
Thomas Meehan, 
Synspermy in the Horsechestnut. — After sending a note lately 
^pon a three-seeded horsechestnut, I found those with two seeds so 
common as to be unworthy of mention. So perhaps is the case I 
^ited. Now, however, I can record a greater rarity, viz., a com- 
plete union of two seeds into one, the attachment being at the hilum. 
As I wish to preserve the specimen, I have not dissevered the parts 
fo ascertain whether the union is by more than the integuments, but 
*t looks as if it were. Under Synspermy^ Dr. M. T. Masters, in a foot- 
^Jte, gives the case of jEscuIus Hippocastanum, but considers the 
phenomenon unusual 
Providence, R. I. W. W. Bailey. 
Note on the May-Apple.— Prof. T. C. Porter kindly sends me a 
^^Py of the Botanical Gazette, 1877, No. 9, describing essentially the 
