102 
Mountain last year; not an individual was gathered this season, 
though many searches were made. 
Binghamton, N. Y. Chas. F. Millspaugh. 
Pine-needles.— We read with interest, in the Bulletin for 
August, just issiied, that Mr. Meehan now is in accord with the 
botanical world in general in the belief that pine-needles "are true 
leaves, and not modifications of branches," as he has formerly taught. 
And really the reasons for his former opinion seem to be fairly over- 
borne by the assigned reason for his conversion, namely, that in cer- 
tain three-leaved fascicles of a pine, " each is a trifle shorter than 
the other." 
F 
Perhaps his suggestion that " all pines are monophyllous in the 
early stages of growth " because the needles of a bundle sometimes 
stick together for a while, but separate bv " a light tap " on the apex, 
may be equally overborne by the consideration that this is incom- 
patible with his statement "that a fascicle of pine-leaves is a de- 
pressed spiral,' and by the fast that the adjacent needles of the 
bundle of white pine-leaves in question merely stuck together, but 
were never united. 
A. Gray. 
The " Mocker-Nut.''— The word mocker, in the name " mocker- 
nut, affords an example of an accomodated spelling due to a popu- 
lar, though very erroneous, etymology. Michaux (Hist, des Arbres 
forestiers de I'Amer. Sept., i., 178-9) says of the fruit of Carya 
iomentosa: . 
w 
''The shell, which is very thick, slightly striate, and of extreme 
nardness, contains a kernel which is sweet, but small, and difficult to 
extract on account of the very strong dissepiments that divide it; and 
It is probably for this reason that this species has been called the 
rnocker-nul hickory." By this he would have us to understand that 
tlie nut was so called because it mo^h at one's efforts to extract its 
kernel. 
Ihis explanation, notwithstanding its absurdity, has been copied 
into various books, and is, I think, the only one that has ever been 
ottered; at least I have never met with any other. 
It seems useless to mention the fact that to speak of a mocker 
nut in the sense assigned to the prefix by Michaux would be as un- 
Jnglish as it would be to speak of a cryer baby, a barker dog or a 
flower stream. 
The f in the word mocker is epenthetic, and the name mocker-nut 
stands for (New York) Dutch moker-noot, ' heavy-hammer nut,' /. e., 
one which, owing to the thickness of its shell, it takes more than a 
light hammer to crack. 
The old and correct spelling, moker-nut, should be restored in 
botanical works, and the other, which is entirely meaningless, should 
be left to the trade-language ol the nut-market, where perhaps it 
originated. 
W. R. G. 
