THE PI.ANT WORIvD 245 



ance. The stamens were shrivelled up, and the styles were not more 

 than a quarter of an inch in length — barely twice as long as the stamens. 

 The greatest change was in the petals. In some normal flowers near 

 them they were an inch or more in length, but in these strange ones they 

 were hardly more than a quarter of an inch in length — in one case about 

 five thirty -seconds of an inch. This peculiarity and their erect position 

 made them most conspicuous. 



In searching for other abnormal flowers on the same plants, one was 

 found that had ten poorly developed petals instead of five. Four of the 

 sepals were placed opposite one another in pairs with the fifth at one side. 

 Six of the petals succeeded in pushing their spurs between the sepals in the 

 usual manner, but the remaining four were curled up against the base 

 of the sepals. The stamens seemed to be normal, though still immature. 

 The sepals and petals were somewhat tinged with red, but not as deeply 

 as was the case with nearby flowers not so far advanced. 



About two weeks before these were noticed there was a severe cold 

 snap that seemed to check some of the spring blossoms, in particular 

 the dogwood. It may be that the buds of these abnormal flowers were 

 injured by the cold at a critical stage in their development. 



C. E. Waters. 



POISONOUS EFFECTS OF A CALIFORNIA SHRUB. 



One of the showy plants of the mountains of Southern California is 

 Nania Parryi, a half shrubby member of the waterleaf family, which 

 attains a height of six or eight feet. The leaves are rough-hairy and 

 very glutinous, and the whole plant exhales a peculiar and disagreeable 

 odor, suggestive of the neighborhood of a brewery. In summer, when 

 the pinkish-lavender flowers are blooming in multitudinous clusters along 

 the wand-like branches, the plants present a striking appearance upon 

 their native mountain slopes, and but for the malodor of the foliage the 

 flowers would be a favorite with bouquet gatherers. 



That this plant is capable of producing a severe eruptive poisoning 

 upon sensitive skins would appear not to have been recorded heretofore. 

 It has poisonous properties, however, as is proved by the recent experi- 

 ence of the present writer's wife, who unsuspectingly handled the stems 

 while standing in a blossoming bush of which a photograph was being 

 taken. She had grasped the plant in such a way that some of the branch- 

 lets were drawn through her fingers and lay against her exposed forearm. 

 The next day the eruption made its appearance upon these exact places, 

 but afterwards spread as in the case of Rhus poisoning, and created 

 great discomfort for two weeks or more. The general characteristics of 



