1912] The Ottawa Naturalist. 117 



are dragged out of their niches. The pollen masses are conveyed 

 on the feet to the stigmas of other flowers, the approaches to 

 which lie through chambers concealed in the slits. When the 

 foot is withdrawn the ligatures attaching the pollinia to the 

 little clip are broken and the pollinia are left in the cavity while 

 the clip maintains its grip of the claw. 



Further particulars of the process of fertilization in the 

 Asclepiadaceae may be found in Dr. Oliver's translation of 

 Prof. Kerners' "Natural History of Plants," from which much 

 of the information here given has been extracted. F. W. L. 

 Sladen. 



A NOTE ON THE NORTHWESTERN DISTRIBUTION OF 



THE SUGAR MAPLE. 



By O. E. Jennings, B.Sc. (Agr.), Ph.D., Carnegie Museum, 

 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 



As the current manuals are not definite as to the north- 

 western distribution of the Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) 

 it is probably worth while to note its occurrence near Fort 

 William on the northwestern shore of Lake Superior. 



It became the writer's good fortune to spend three months 

 botanizing along the northern shore of Lake Superior during 

 the past summer. The region explored extended from Fort 

 William on the west to Heron Bay on the east, and a delightful 

 region this is for a botanist or nature lover in any form. Upon 

 becoming acquainted with Chief Penassie of the Fort William 

 Indian Reservation, the writer soon found him well versed in 

 the distribution of many of the native plants of the region. 

 Mr. Penassie was kind enough to point out a rather obscure 

 trail leading up through a narrow defile in the mountains about 

 four miles south, and a little west, of Fort William, where is 

 located a colony of perhaps fifty sugar maples. The maples 

 are well protected by precipitous walls on either side of the 

 defile, which is here about one-third of a mile wide, and they 

 are on a shelf at an altitude of probably 1,500 feet above the 

 sea, in well-drained soil. 



The trees are mostly rather gnarled and, from the fact that 

 a number of saplings were found on the outskirts of the colony, 

 it would appear that the colony is now spreading and that the 

 sugar maple mav have been a rather recent immigrant into 

 this particular location. At the bases of the trees there are 

 deformations, due to the rather crude method by which the 

 Indians have been obtaining the sap. A birch-bark teepee is 



