NOTES AND NEWS. 155 



Last October, while collecting ferns on some dry cliffs along the 

 Susquehanna river, I found several plants of C heir ant Jms cheiran- 

 thoides, in flower and fruit, which varied from i^ to 2 inches in height. 

 To me they were interesting as showing the effect of the dry place in 

 which they grew. To the teacher such variations from the normal are 

 of the greatest value in showing the effect of change of climate. — 

 William C. Barbour, Sayre Borough Schools, Sayrc, Pa. 



For three years we have been especially well pleased with our 

 effort to supply large classes in beginning botany with specimens of 

 fleshy and stone fruits, flower buds, etc., preserved in pint jars by the 

 use of formalin. This enables us in plant morphology to work 

 on a chapter on fruits or stamens or other subjects with m.uch greater 

 satisfaction than to rely entirely on fresh materials. An hour and a 

 half a day daily for the term occupied in labratory work will accom- 

 plish a good deal. — W. J. Beal. 



In the March number of The Plant World Mr. Willard N. Clute 

 states that he collected HypocJiceris radiata L. in the eastern part of 

 Long Island. It seems this plant is making itself at home on Long 

 Island, at least in some localities. Last summer I found it in the 

 southwestern part of Long Island, at Millburn, on a grassy border 

 between fields and roads. In the same locality I collected several 

 other strangers. Leontodon hastile L., Melachris soncJioidcs Nutt., Ber- 

 teroa incona (L.) DC, and Grindelia squarrosa (Pursh) Dunal. 

 I may also mention that I found on old ballast places in Philadel- 

 phia three new additions to the flora of Pennsylvania, Polygonum 

 Bellardi AH., Plantago arenaria W. & K., and. Matricaria juatrica- 

 rioides (Less.) Porter. — AlbrccJit Jahn, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Among the recollections of rude experiments with plants in my 

 boyhood, is one concerning the fruit of Zanthoxyluni Americanuni, 

 upon which occasion I obtained two distinct kinds of oil from it. I 

 crushed a few handfuls of the fruit and put the mass into a small im- 

 provised still, and thus separated from the seed pods an exceedingly 

 pungent, volatile oil, having, as is well known, a flavor closely like 

 that of oil of lemon. When the water had cooled in which the crushed 

 fruit had been boiled, there was a fixed oil upon its surface which had 

 plainly come from the cotyledons. Wrapping some seeds, freed from 

 the seed pods, in a bit of cheesecloth and subjecting it to strong pres- 

 sure, I obtained a small quantity of what was really a vegetable fat, 

 or an oil loaded with palmitin. It was whitish in color and perfectly 

 bland to the taste. I have never repeated the experiment, except to 

 verify the presence of the fat, and do not know that any one else has 

 done so, but that juvenile investigation still strikes me as an interest- 



