114 THE PLANT WORLD 



GENERAL ITEMS. 



Dr. F. H. Knowlton, editor-in-chief of this journal, has gone west 

 on an extended collecting trip. He will study the fossil plants of vari- 

 ous geological formations in Colorado, California and Oregon. 



In the Louisiana exhibit in the Agricultural Building at the Pan- 

 American Exposition, cotton naturally occupies a prominent position. 

 Forty varieties of seed and sixty of lint cotton are shown, the latter 

 displayed in miniature bales. Several full-sized bales as they are jDre- 

 pared for shipment are also shown. Thirty-five varieties of sweet 

 potatoes form another interesting feature of this exhibit, one monster 

 weighing 122 pounds. The genus Ipomoea, to which the sweet potato 

 belongs, and which also includes our common morning-glory, is note- 

 worthy for the enormous development of tubers in some of its species. 



Orris-root, the rhizomes of Iris fiorentina, has been singularly over- 

 looked by wide-awake Americans who are ever on the lookout for some- 

 thing on which " a good snap " might be made. As it has long been 

 grown as an ornamental garden plant, there is no question about its 

 successful adaptation to culture here. It is one of the staple bases on 

 which many popular perfumes are constructed, and would always find 

 a ready market. European papers tell us that the demand there for 

 it is so lively that the prices have risen considerably, and, indeed, it is 

 believed that the stock in hand is behind the probable demand — Mee- 

 hans' lion tidy for 3Iay. 



The Philippine exhibit at the Pan-American Exposition contains 

 samples of the famous Manila hemp in huge skeins, like flaxen hair, or 

 made up into ropes and cables. There are sugar baskets and bales, and 

 native sugar of various grades, tobacco, coffee, indigo, dye-stuffs, cocoa- 

 nut fibre and oil, and the beautiful and wonderfully delicate pina cloth, 

 made from pineapple fibre. Most abundant of all is the bamboo, which 

 the Filiijino adapts to every conceivable use. There are bedsteads of 

 bamboo, chairs, tables, brushes, milk jars, rakes, rafts, and strangest of 

 all, musical instruments. Hardly less important is rattan, of which the 

 native constructs baskets, balls, mats and numerous other household 

 articles. The palm leaf is everywhere in evidence, being used for roofs, 

 hats, cloaks, fans, baskets, etc. 



