THE PLANT WORLD 117 



General Items. 



The meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science in Pittsburgh was a most interesting one, althovigh the attendance 

 was scarcely up to the average. About fifty amateur and professional 

 botanists were registered at the Botanical Club. The hall in which 

 sessions of the latter were held was decorated each day with large bunches 

 of choice flowers from the Phipps Conservatory, the display of Japanese 

 iris and gloxinias being remarkably fijie. The pleasant entertainments 

 and hospitality extended by the local committee was greatly appreciated 

 by the visiting scientists. 



Some tulips in my garden exhibited a rather peculiar freak a year 

 ago last spring. As is well known, this plant renews its bulbs at the 

 close of the blossoming season, so that when the foliage is ripe and the 

 bulbs are lifted, two or three ma}^ be found within the skin of the old 

 one. Upon digging up my plants I found one stem with not only the 

 normal bulbs at the base, but with two supernumerary smaller bulbs 

 attached to the stem at intervals of several inches. These were perfectly 

 developed, and grew well when replanted the following season. 



C. L. P. 



One of the most interesting features of the Phipps Conservatory in 

 Pittsburg, Pa., is double cocoanut palm or coco-de-mer, known to science 

 as Lodoicea Seychdlarum. It is confined to the Seychelles islands, and 

 is very rare in cultivation or in herbaria ; the specimens at the Phipps 

 Conservatory were grown from seed, and required over a year and a half, 

 in a temperature of 90°, to germinate. One plant has been givin to the 

 National Botanical Garden, and another to the New York Botanical 

 Garden. 



The development of the witch hazel {Hamamelis) has been made 

 the subject of an interesting study by D.N. Shoemaker (Johns Hopkins 

 University Circulars, No. 158, p. 86). He shows that the pollen, as might 

 be expected from the plant's habit of blooming in the fall, is very resis- 

 tant to low temperatures. " Pollen taken from buds which opened in 

 January after a week of cold weather with the mercury as low as — 15° F., 

 sprouted quite normal though short tubes." The pollen on first sprout- 

 ing on the stigma grows with comparative rapidity until the beginning 

 of winter, when the upper part of the carpel dies and the i^ollen tube 

 passes the winter in the part of the carpel which is covered with hairs. 

 On the opening of spring the pollen tube continues its growth and 

 fertilization takes place about the middle of May, or from five to seven 

 months after pollination. 



