124 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



lets, which are essentially detached buds capable of growth 

 into new plants may, after all, be one way in which the species 

 defends itself from extinction. 



Gardkning in One's shoes. — A good many people, 

 without knowing it, maintain a considerable garden in their 

 shoes. Certain tiny plants which thrive in warm, moist places 

 ma}- multiply there and in time make their presence known 

 by odors that are far from pleasing. Scrupulous cleanliness 

 is often counted on to keep one free of such pests, but he may 

 become infected again and again, especially if he patronizes 

 a cobbler. Even trying on a pair of new shoes that have 

 been tried on by someone else may produce trouble. People 

 who wish to be rid of such gardens are often advised to bathe 

 the feet in water containing a small amount of formaldehyde, 

 but a much better scheme is to shake into the offending shoes, 

 a little powdered boric acid now and then. The acid may be 

 obtained at any drug store and is absolutely harmless — ex- 

 cept to the pesiferous plants. Copper sulphate or even ordin- 

 ary sulphur may be used but these may cause stains on light 

 shoes while boric acid will not. 



LiCHEi-rs. — No climate is too wet, too dry, too hot or 

 too cold for lichens of some kind to flourish. Tlie talus blocks 

 of rhyolite exposed to the cloudless glare of the sun in a 

 region with an annual rainfall of no more than eight inches 

 are covered with drouth resistant lichens as closely aggre- 

 gated as they can crow'd, while the desert below sea-level, 

 with a rainfall of less than two inches has a plenitude of 

 rock and earth lichens which thrive in the heat as great as 

 the earth affords. On the other hand, the pinnacles of the 

 great Puget Sound volcanoes or the sky-splitting peaks of 

 the Alps are thickly crusted with layers of dark lichens or 

 swathed in leathery blizzard-defying Gyrophoras. From the 



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