126 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



tention to the identification until the 17th of May of. this 

 year when Doctor Wherry from Washington was here look- 

 ing for the same plant. We made the trip to Camp Nelson 

 where we found it again. In the opinion of Doctor Wherry 

 this plant is undoubtedly the true species." This at least gives 

 one definite location for the plant. All the others in which it 

 is reported to grow, either show no trace of it or the plants 

 seem more properly referred to Phlox bifida. 



Yucca. — In Florida the yucca is known aa Spanish bay- 

 onet. At St. Augustine they have huge old plants, very tall, to 

 guard the gates of the city,. and in the northern part of the 

 State you see them occasionally. The species was probably 

 introduced into Florida by the early Spanish settlers as we 

 had several at our home, St. Nicholas, formerly an old Span- 

 ish fort across the river from Jacksonville. In Arizona the 

 yucca is often known as "amole." In this species the plants 

 are low and the foliage dull colored and hairy, but? the flower 

 stem is the same — very long and covered with dozens of 

 white waxen lily-like flowera and followed by large and curi- 

 ous seed-pods. Here the plant is used in the manufacture of 

 soaps and washing-powder for the head. I do not think the 

 root is edible or the Mexicans would make use of it for that 

 purpose. — Mrs. O. A. Biidd, Prescott, Arts. 



TradescanTia. — The Tradescantia is also known as 

 spider-wort, Job's tears and widow's tears, from the three 

 petals dissolving into a jelly-like "tear-drop," after having 

 been in bloom but a day. The varieties found here (north- 

 east Texas) are low^growing and thick-stemmed, producing 

 large heads of bloom. I recently counted sixty-five buds on 

 a single stalk. I have never seen them advertised in catalogs 

 in any colors but blue and white, but here we find blue, purple- 

 blue, and the softest shades of rose and lilac, but no white. 



