I 



i 



i 



137 



Botanical Notes. 



Cypress Knees. — Accumulated facts render it much 



more 



easy to "put this and that together" and form reasonable 

 deductions than in past times, yet nothing but shrewd guesses 

 have been offered in explanation of the habit the Taxodiiim has, 

 of throwing up the excrescences known as " Cypress Knees." 

 The generally accepted guess is that they serve to supply th 

 submerged roots with air, but just how this tough woody tissue 

 can act in this manner is not clear to the vegetable physiologist. 

 This guess was in a measure supported by the statement that the 

 tree produced knees only when in very swampy ground, I once 

 beheved this, but recently an instance came before me where on 

 a dry bank, though near a lake, the knees were abundant I 

 have seen them in dry places in Mississippi and Louisiana, but I 

 fancied the situations were once wet, when the knees were first 

 formed. A writer in an English horticultural journal hazards a 

 wholly novel guess that they are abortive suckers, and in sup- 

 port of this states that a tap-root is always found beneath a knee. 

 This last statement of fact is wholly new to me, and I should be 

 glad to know whether it can be confirmed by observations in our 



country. 



Thomas Meeiian. 



Specimens of. 



and form, from all parts of the country, but more especially from 

 the west coast, are greatly desired by M. F. Crepin, to aid in 

 the pfeparation of his forthcoming "Monograph General/' 

 Packages may be sent for this purpose to Dr. G. N. Best, Rose- 

 n^ont, Hunterdon Co., New Jersey. M. Crepin will give due 

 credit to all contributors in the pages of his monograph. 



British UredinecB and UstilaginecB. Chas. B. Plowright, F. 

 L. S., 8vo., about 2*jo pp. Price, 7^., 6d. 



The above work, which will be published as soon as the 

 requisite number of subscribers has been obtained, besides con ■ 

 taining descriptions of the British species ol these fungi, will 

 also give a full account of their Biology, so far as this is at present 

 known, including the methods of observing the germination of 

 their spores, and of their experimental culture. Subscriptions 

 should be sent to Messrs. Ke^an, Paul, Trench & Co., i Pater- 



.noster Square, London, England. 



^mb 



