54 THE PLANT WOELD 



General Items. 



Apropos of your recent cliscussiou of Trillmm sports it may be of 

 interest to note tliat I collected in Plymouth, N. H., a specimen of the 

 painted trillium {T. erythrocarpum of Gray's Manual) with the parts 

 all in 4 instead of three : 4 leaves, 4 sepals, 4 petals, 8 stamens, 4^parietal 

 ovary. A. J. Grout. 



The Seventh Annual Winter Meeting of the Vermont Botanical 

 Club, held at Burlington, January 24th and 25th, was in every way a 

 most successful meeting. Among the twenty-three papers presented 

 were interesting accounts of small botanical gardens, notes on mush- 

 rooms and ferns, a report on the maple sap problems, a study of the flow 

 of nectar as measured by the honey bee, and observations on bacterial 

 diseases of plants. The subjects of nature study and forestry received 

 considerable attention. The address by Professor Robinson, of Harvard 

 University, on Some Recent Advances in the Classification of the Flow- 

 ering Plants, outlined the history of various schemes of classification and 

 furnished a most interesting account of the Engler and Prantl system. 



February 10, 1902. Tracy E. Hazen. 



One of the most valuable woods in eastern Cuba for general build- 

 ing purposes is afforded by a species of Thrinax, or thatch palm, growing 

 along the north coast. The trunk is rather slender and of uniform 

 dimensions throughout ; while the wood is so exceedingly hard as to 

 defy the average axe. Poles of this wood set in the ground over fifty 

 years ago exhibit no sign of decay. 



It is not necessarj'^ to visit the Philippines or Eastern Asia to see 

 the real bamboo in its native home, although, of course, that quarter of 

 the world is the main center of distribution for the arborescent grasses 

 known by this name. But the Cuban bamboo, particularly in Santiago 

 province, is frequently met with along arroyos and streams attaining a 

 height of from forty to sixty feet, with stems at the base nearly as thick 

 as a man's leg. It grows in immense clumps, branching out above into 

 numerous feathery divisions. The stems are of great use to the Cubans, 

 being employed as fence posts, house frames, etc., and in short lengths 

 as water vessels. 



Most Cuban fences enjoy the unique distinction of being alive, and 

 of throwing out spikes of flowers at certain seasons. This is not because 



