THE PLANT WORLD 171 



queer conceit of the shearer. Of course, shrubs should be pruned to 

 make them healthy and vigorous, to keep them within bounds, to increase 

 the size of bloom, to check mere waywardness ; but all this leaves the 

 shrub a shrub, with the hand of the pruner unseen, and does not make 

 it to counterfeit a bottle or a barrel or a parachute. If the forsythia has 

 superlative merit, it is for the wealth of early spring bloom. Yet I know 

 a yard in which the forsythias are annually sheared into shapeless shapes, 

 and this is done when they are in bloom. Last year two-thirds of the 

 bloom was cut from these bushes when it was just opening, and the reply 

 of the Irishman who barbered them, when I remonstrated, was, ' ludade, 

 they hev no shape.' " 



Miscellany. 



Prop. L. M. Underwood, of Columbia University, and Mr. William 

 R. Maxon, of the National Museum, have returned from Jamaica with a 

 large and valuable collection of ferns, which will be determined by them 

 jointly. 



In his report on a trip to Honduras, published in the Jo2ir7ial of the 

 New York Botayiical Garden, Mr. Percy Wilson gives some interesting 

 facts about a number of tropical plants. Referring to the cohune palm 

 {Attalea Cohune), he says that it "is frequently met with in the forest or 

 in the open fields, and is utilized by the natives for building houses, or a 

 single leaf is sometimes used as a sail. The fruit is produced in large 

 bunches and is about the size of a hen's e:gg. The kernel has a flavor 

 much like that of a cocoanut, but is more oily. The trunk of this palm 

 contains a large supply of a watery fluid, which is obtained by cutting 

 the palm down and making a hole near the top, and by raising the basal 

 end the liquor flows into the cavity, and is readily obtained with the aid 

 of a small vessel, thus supplying a cooling drink." 



We are in receipt of a neatly-bound little volume by Ira F. Mans- 

 field, entitled "Contributions to the Flora of Beaver County, from the 

 Mansfield Herbarium, 1865-1903," if one follows the title-page. But 

 the cover bears the imprint " Wild Flowers, Beaver County," and on the 

 back we find "Mansfield Herbarium." This multiplicity of titles is 

 unfortunate, but as the book is merely a local list of the plants of Beaver 

 County, Pennsylvania, it will not require frequent citation. It is neatly, 

 even elegantly, printed, though the pages are marred by some atrocious 

 typographical errors. A number of colored plates from Neltje Blanchan's 

 "Nature's Garden," from Birds and Nature, and other sources are in- 

 cluded. Descriptive notes are frequently inserted in the text. The 

 nomenclature, we regret to say, follows antique usage. — c. L. p. 



