14 THE PLANT WOELD 



A GERMINATING COCOANUT. 



While cracking open a cocoanut one day last week, I was surprised 

 to find in it a very peculiar growth. A beautiful white, spongy puff- 

 ball rose from the inner side, being firmly attached to the eyes. It 

 was about two inches in width. Every portion of the kernel was easily 

 removed, leaving the growth standing intact in the shell. Strange to 

 say, the nut was perfectly sweet. As I had used many nuts, and had 

 never seen anything similar before, I sent it to the botanical garden, 

 there to discover whether it was really an unusual occurrence. It was 

 examined with interest. Dr. McDougal, in " The Nature and Work of 

 Plants," speaks of the germination, as follows : 



" The absorbing organ, the inner end of the embryo, which is made 

 of the cotyledon, has developed a mass of tissue very much the shape of 

 a puff-ball, which is at first the size of a marble, but Avhich gradually 

 enlarges until it fills the ca\dty of the nut. It uses the milk for food as 

 it grows, and furthermore, it secretes digestive fluids (enzyms), which 

 dissolve the starch and oil in the endosperm, about as it would be done 

 in the human stomach. The fluid thus obtained is conveyed back into 

 the young plant and serves as food. The endosperm may be seen to 

 be thinner where the absorbing organ has touched it. The amount of 

 food furnished by the endosperm is so great that the plantlet may be 

 nourished many months from it alone, and generally it is entirely con- 

 sumed, remaining sweet and sound as long as a trace is present." 

 New York City. PaULINE KaufMAN. 



A CURIOUS ROOT PARASITE. 



Some months ago Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, of the U. S. National Mu- 

 seum, received from a correspondent in Mississippi a small box of speci- 

 mens of Apteria setacea Nutt., the curious little Burmanniaceous parasite. 

 Following is the ac.count of the plant, as it occurs in nature : 



The plant, as I stated before, grows in shadj- woods, on hillsides — 

 principally southern slopes — preferring the d^mp, sandy soil bordering 

 the little swampy bottoms that intersect the pine woods of this coast 

 section. It also grows on the tiny hillocks in these bottoms formed by 

 mold collecting on the roots of white bay {Ma(jnoJia glauca) and black 

 gum {Nyssn multiflora), but never, apparently, on the positively wet 

 ground between these hillocks. The species upon Avhich I have ob- 

 served it to be parasitic are seven : Magnolia glauca, Nyssa multiflora, 

 Quercus rubra, Oxydendrum arhoreum, Azalea multiflora, Piniis taeda, 

 Acer dasycarpum. The first two and the last being very common trees 

 in the bottoms or "bay galls," are perhaps the most typical hosts ; but 

 any tree within the limits prescribed by the necessary degree of mois- 

 ture and shade seems to be subject to this mildest of parasites. It is 



