THE PLANT WORLD 13 



comes forth early in the spring and ripens into a pear-shaped fruit by 

 the last of June. This fruit, the petahaya, tastes like a mixture of rasp- 

 berry and fig, and is highly prized by both Indians and Mexicans. Part 

 of the fruit is eaten while ripe, and the rest is dried in the sun or boiled 

 down to a jam. 



Until the advent of the missionaries to the Papago Indian tribe, 

 some twenty years ago, the gathering of the saguara was the occasion 

 of the greatest orgy of the year. From the fruit a highly intoxicating 

 beverage was made. With this the Indians drank themselves into a 

 state of frenzied intoxication. During these feasts a number of the 

 braves were frequently killed. The saguara is short-lived, although 

 tradition has given it an age measured by centuries, and usually begins 

 to decay at the base before attaining its growth. Moisture is fatal to it, 

 and as soon as it receives a constant supply of water, decay is rapid. 



— Phoenix Correspondence, New York Sun. 



A FALL FLOWERING VIOLET. 



On October 30, I had the rare pleasure of finding a patch of Violci 

 pinnatijida in full bloom. The blossoms were larger than I am wont to 

 see, and it seemed to me a trifle paler, but not enough to detract from 

 their beauty. Water had frozen night after night in tubs and small 

 vessels to the thickness of a quarter inch. The blooms were therefore 

 sufiiciently astonishing, as they do not venture out in any such weather 

 in the spring. But the leaves were what especiallj^ caught my eye and 

 made me careful to preserve the specimens. The spring specimens are 

 divided almost to the base or within two or four lines of it, and sub- 

 divided into linear or oblanceolate segments, losing any cordate outline 

 they were designed to have. 



These last forms are strongly cordate, divided a little more or less 

 than half way into 3-6 main divisions, the subdivisions amounting in many 

 instances to Httle more than coarse teeth. Some of the leaves are 25 

 lines in diameter, flowers 11 lines in length after pressing. In Dr. 

 Britton's Revised Manual, is the first mention I have seen of any such 

 leaves. "Forms occur in Vt^hich the leaves are merely slighly lobed." 

 This note is written to draw out other experiences. Is it an autumnal 

 form only ; or has this form been found at other seasons ? I hunted up 

 another patch where I collected the normal form, last May, to see if they 

 were affected the same way, and found no flowers, but the leaves just as 

 I have described these. I shall label mine forma autumnalis, until I 

 hear that it occurs in the spring blooming 



Of course, I shall save plants from the same patch next spring. 



J. M. Bates, 

 Callaway, Custer County, Neb. 



