122 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



who lived where brooms grew ready to hand were, however, 

 more fortunate than the others. A modern vegetable broom 

 has recently been reported from Japan. It is said that in that 

 country our common "standing c\-press"' "burning bush" or 

 World's Fair plant" {Kochia scoparia), or a plant so much 

 like it that passes under its name, has branches so tough and 

 resistent that after they have served their time as ornamental 

 plants they are pulled up and employed for more useful pur- 

 poses. 



Thk Butter worts — A plant sent for name by a reader 

 in South Carolina proves to be Pingiiiciila elatior a cousin of 

 the plant of North America and Europe known as the butter- 

 wort or bog violet {P. zulgaris). The Carolina plant is also 

 well entitled to the name of bog violet since its flowers are 

 the size and color of violets, are turned sidewise on the stem, 

 and posses a spur projecting backward. • The spur, by the 

 way, is rather slender and pointed and reminds one of the 

 long-spurred violet (F. rostrata) more than it does the other 

 species. The leaves of all the pinguiculas are greasy to the 

 touch and many small insects become mired in the excretion 

 which is supposed to digest them for the use of the plant. A 

 yellow-flowered species common on the Gulf Coast, and there 

 known as buttercup, is an expert insect-catcher but its flower- 

 stalks are so greasy as to make them unfit for bouquets. 

 Pinguicula vulgaris is spread irregularly across tlie norther!^, 

 hemisphere and becomes rare southward, but in the latter 

 region it is well represented by four other members of its 

 tribe. 



J.\r.\xi;sK \\'.\ti:r-i'laxt. — Whenever one has new 

 swindle to put over, he always gives his project some impres- 

 sive name. A few years ago, there was an epidemic of Jap- 

 anese air plants which were not plants at all, but colonies of 



