THE PI.ANT WORIvD 43 



ulate Blue-eyed Grass and the Clasping-leaved Twisted-Stalk, I worked 

 over the region very thoroughly, and was rewarded by the discovery also 

 of a little pool containing Drouet's White Water- Crowfoot and the Alga- 

 like Pond weed." 



The above names were taken at random from one of our standard 

 manuals. Can any one imagine what would become of the literature of 

 popular botany if such horrible phrases were to be taken seriously ? It 

 may have seemed to some of our readers that we admit technical names 

 too freely to our pages ; and one of our aspiring contemporaries has in- 

 vented the marvellous adjective " untechnical," which it applies to itself, 

 and which it conceives The Plant World is not. But we think that in 

 view of the above remarks our readers will agree that scientific names 

 are better than coined names, and that an article free from unduly tech- 

 nical language is always readable when it is of the right sort. 



Shoe pegs use up annually the crop of 3,000 acres of the second 

 growth of hard- wood land. 



Mr. G.N. Collins has written an interesting treatise on ' ' The Mango 

 in Porto Rico" (Bull. 28, Bureau Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. Agric), 

 in which he describes the various varieties and mode of cultivation of 

 this valuable tropical fruit. The book is handsomely illustrated with 

 photographs. 



According to the .S"^. Petersburger Zeihing, cotton culture in one of the 

 cotton-growing districts of Bokhara has declined in consequence of the too 

 great eagerness of the local government to get as much revenue as possible 

 out of the cultivators. The use of American cotton seed having given 

 better results than were obtained from the seed of the native cotton, it 

 seems to have been concluded that cotton -growers using the former could 

 afford to pay a heavier tax than those employing the latter. Notice was 

 therefore given, according to the journal named above, that future cotton 

 plantings in which American seed was used would be taxed to the amount 

 of one-half of the crop, whereas if native seed were used the proportion 

 of the crop exacted would be only one-third. The result appears to be 

 that cotton -growers are abandoning the use of American seed; for although 

 the total crop is larger when this seed is used, the difference is not great 

 enough to offset the heavier taxation, and the cultivator consequently gets 

 the best returns for himself by using the less productive seed. It may be 

 observed that a payment of one-third or one-half of the crop must be in 

 the nature of a rent charge rather than a tax. — Crop Reporter. 



