NOTES AfiD NEV5. . . 



The San Francisco Chronicle of recent date contains an account 

 of the finding of a new fossil forest in Sonoma county of that State. 

 The trees are all prostrate, the largest one being about eight feet in 

 diameter and exposed for about thirty feet. According to the ac- 

 count they are all chalcedonized and variously colored, after the 

 manner of those of the celebrated Chalcedony Park, Arizona. 



Kivlreiiteria panicidata is a handsome round-headed Chinese tree 

 some twenty to forty feet in height, that is hardy throughout nearly 

 all of the eastern United States. It is a member of the Sapindaceae, 

 being somewhat allied to the Horse-chestnut, but having once or 

 twice irregularly pinnate leaves with many coarsely-toothed leaflets, 

 and a large three-celled bladdery pod. It is grown very successfully 

 in the parks in Washington City, and is quite ornamental in fruit. 



The "bloom " or white waxy coating of many leaves and fruits 

 is made the subject of an interesting account by Miss Roberta Rey- 

 nolds in a late number of the Laboratory Bulletin of Oberlin College. 

 The bloom appears to be an adaptation to prevent the excessive escape 

 of moisture from the plant, for when it was removed from the epider- 

 mis the transpiration of water was greatly increased, several plants 

 losing between two and three times as much as when the bloom was 

 present. 



The New York Mycological Club issued in July a pamphlet of 

 sixteen pages containing a list of its officers and members, which 

 number one hundred and four, as well as a list of the principal works 

 on Fungi accessible to students of Mycology in Greater New York. 

 These books are scattered through seven libraries, including six sets 

 of periodicals and one hundred and twenty-two books. Cook's " Rust, 

 Smut, Mildew and Moulds," and Gibson's "Our Edible Toadstools 

 and Mushrooms," occur in several libraries; most of the others are 

 either at Columbia or at the Astor Library. 



Last summer I climbed Green Mountain, near Boulder, Colorado, 

 and found growing from a crevice in one of the rocks at the summit 

 a small tree of Pinus albicaiilis Englm., about thirteen centimeters 

 (five inches) high and five millimeters (one-fourth of an inch) in 

 diameter. It was unbranched and bore a single, terminal tuft of 

 leaves. And yet this tiny tree, when carefully examined, was found 

 to have twenty-five distinct annual rings. I know of no other case of 

 natural dwarfing carried to such an extreme, and, therefore, place 

 this one on record. — Charles E. Bessey in Science for October 28, i8g8. 



