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stem has a dark purple bloom, the bunches of leaves are dark 
green, with a suggestion of the same purple hue, and the flowers 
—opening before the leaves unfold—are a dark chocolate brown. 
On account of its coloring, I had some difficulty in identifying it, 
and for some time knew it only as “the black plant.” By that 
or some other name descriptive of its dark appearance, it was 
generally known by people who valued flowers for their orna- 
mental effects only, and it was prized for the contrast it afforded 
to the prevalent light greens. The specimen in our herbarium 
from Mount Royal, although dried ten years ago, shows well the 
colors I have mentioned. So far as I remember, the smaller 
biternate leaf mentioned in Gray’s Manual was always present. 
On coming to Ohio I looked in vain for my black plant, and 
was disappointed to find that it wears here nothing but dingy 
greens and yellow. One specimen from the south of the State 
answers to the description given by Mr. Foerste. The smaller 
biternate leaf is present, and there is also the third leaf divided 
once ternately, with only the middle lobe divided ternately again. 
Besides the terminal panicle of flowers, there is a small panicle 
in the axil of the third leaf and a larger panicle in the axil of the 
second. K. B. CLAYPOLE. 
Index to Recent American Botanical Literature. 
Acclimatization: Does it occur ?—-L. H. Bailey, Jr. (Amer. 
Garden, Sept., Oct., 1887). : 
The question is discussed at length and examples cited of the 
wild and cultivated species of the same genus and the differences 
in altitude and latitude at which they will grow. 
Acclimatization in New Zealand.—Geo. M. Thomson. (Science, 
x, Dp: 170, 171). 
“English plants chiefly have spread themselves over the 
country, wherever the settler has gone. It is what Sir Joseph 
Hooker has called the aggressive Scandinavian flora, which so 
strongly asserts itself on all sides,” 
Alge aus Cuba, Famaica und Puerto Rico, Ueber einige.— 
G. Lagerheim. (Botaniska Notiser, 1887, pp. 193-197). 
This comprises a list of Desmids with a few descriptions. 
Bacteria.—Notes on a few forms of.—Isabel Mulford. (Trans. 
Vassar Bros. Inst., iv, (1885-1887), pp. 228-241). 
