THE AMERICAN BOTAXIST 81 



places the daiulelictn as the chief lawn-weed. The iiati\ e spe- 

 cies of Fritillaria and especially f. piidica, are known a> "rice- 

 root" or "Indian rice," from the small pearly-white hulhlets, 

 shaped almost exactly like grains of rice. Brythronium gi- 

 gaiitciiiii is known nni\'ersally in Oregon as "lamb's-tongue" 

 — probably from the shape of the leaves. Zygadenus vcnc- 

 iiosiis is the plant commonly known as "death camas." Our 

 only Stcnanthiuni, S. occidcntalc, is too infrequent to have 

 any common name. 1 know a farmer who stubbornly per- 

 sists in applying the name "death camas" to Mnscari cojnosiiiii, 

 which is well established on his farm. Xerophylliiiii tcnaxis 

 is known as "pine-lily," or more frequently as "bear-grass." 

 The long, tough leaves are used by the Indians for basket- 

 making. The Californian Chlorogahim pomeriditiiii which 

 occurs also in southwestern Oregon, is called "soap-weed" 

 or "soap-root," because the roots make a soapy emulsion in 

 water. — J. C. Nelson, Salem, Oregon. 



Fruits of Japaxkse Quixck. — Paul Winkler writes 

 from Dallas, Texas, that Cydoiiia Japonica bears fruit quite 

 often in the South or even as far north as Southern Kansas. 

 "Tile fruit seems to stay on the Inishes nearly all winter", 

 he says, "Only four days ago [Jan. 201 I noticed a plant with 

 about ten large fruits. I wonder if the climate has some- 

 thing to do with the color of the fruit. The ones T saw in 

 Northern Oklahoma were yellow-brown all right but the ones 

 I see here in Northern Texas are bright yellow, l^.ailey's 

 Cyclopedia is right in the latter case." 



Chaptaua. — In March the wet grounds in the pine bar- 

 rens from North Carolina to Texas are usually sprinkled with 

 with small, white, daisylike flowers which rise on scapes from 

 a rosette of lanceolate leaves densely W(X)lly beneath. It is 

 an unassuming little herb but one quite remarkable from the 

 fact that it is the only member of the Compositae or aster 



