22 
layered branch, where new wood is subjected to the same cond : 
tions, and therefore seem to be quite analogous to the case in 
which the Linden and Mulberry produced roots, if not an expres: 
sion of the same law. The apparent incongruity exhibited bya 
plant deriving, as it seems, nourishment from its own body a 
pears more striking at first thought than if we consider that the 
lignified part of any living trunk, if reduced by decay, is as fit 
tingly a plant food as that which may be appropriated by the 
same individual from its own accumulation of decayed leaves 
provided, of course, the necessary moisture is present in the 
humus. GEORGE B. SUDWORTH 
Forestry Division, Department of Agriculture. 
Botanical Notes. ’ 
Sweet Potato Blossoms. While in South Jersey last fall ! 
was much surprised to find one field of sweet potatoes in 
bloom! Literally this was true, for upon any single square fo 
of the field there were hundreds of the large, handsome, palt 
pink, tubular blossoms, and many more buds preparing for af 
thesis. In conversation with a local botanist, and one who 
always lived in the sweet potato region and among the plants to fo 
many years as a grower of “sweets,” I learned that he had neve 
seen a single bloom, and his face lighted up to such an exten 
when he obtained an herbarium specimen that it was an inspira 
tion to me to send this note to the BULLETIN. If the blossom 
such a rarity in New Jersey, the wonder is if the same is truei 
the Carolinas and further south, where its native haunts may pS 
sibly be, although to this generation they are unknown. It 
possible that this particular field was set with plants of a strai 
foreign to the Jersey soil. ByrON D. HALSTED. | 
Mimulus moschatus, Dougl. in N. Y. State—Some years 
I was told by a friend from here of finding the musk-plant 
Saratoga County wild, which I would not believe. Later he trie 
to convince me by showing me living specimens, but I remaine 
sceptical, as I always heard the plant was not hardy in our 
mate, and probably only an escape from cultivation. The 34‘ 
July last, however, I drove out with the sportsman the twen 
five or more miles from here through West Milton to Midd 
