T H E A iM ER 1 C A N BO T A N I ST 83 



inj4 to discover if feeding has any effect on the sex of plants. 

 By proper manipulation of the food supply he was able to 

 change staminate plants to carpellate plants and vice versa. 

 More remarkable still, after turning carpellate plants into 

 staminate plants, he was able to turn them back to carpellate 

 plants again the following year. It seems likely that the 

 completely staminate plants found in nature may be [)lants 

 that were exhausted the previous year by seed production. 

 Somewhat similar conditions have been found by Dr. Schaff- 

 ner in the hemp {Cannabis sati7'a) and by others in Mcr- 

 citrialis annua. Dr. Schaffner concludes his paper with the 

 following: "In nature, we see (|uite generally the existence 

 of positive, negative, and neutral conditions and the physicist 

 is inclined to interpret these conditions in terms of positive 

 and negative electricity. Whatever the fundamental cause 

 of the positive and negative state of matter will be found to 

 be. it will probably also give a clue to the remarkable duality 

 and dimorphism which we call sexuality and which is a char- 

 acteristic of all plants and animals except the very lowest". 



PiTCHER-PLANT Indooks. — 1 doubt if it is generally 

 known that the pitcher-plant {Sarracenia purpurea) is a plant 

 which takes very kindly to life indoors in winter. A friend 

 of mine was presented with two thrifty plants at Thanksgiv- 

 ing-time in l*^il and told that they might live until Christmas. 

 'I'hey were set in moss in a fairly deep disli in which water 

 was kept standing as well as in the pitchers. They were kept 

 with other plants on a stand in front of a south windi>w. It 

 is now three months since the plants were brought into 

 the house and they are as fresh as at first and are sending up 

 new leaves. While teaching in a little country school in New 

 Hampshire several vears ago. the children brought me a i)itch- 

 er-plant which we ])laced in an old tin basin and kept where 



