156 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



is the "honesty" {Liinaria annua.) It is said to derive its 

 name from the fact that the seeds may be seen through the 

 thin walls of the capsule. It is also known as "money-plant" 

 and "penny-flower" in allusion to the large flat circular seed- 

 pods. In the garden it is called "satin pod" and "satin flow- 

 er" and the smooth and shining partititions of the capsule 

 gathered for winter boucpets, after the rest of the pod has 

 fallen. The name of "matrimony plant" applied to this spe- 

 cies is a puzzle unless it too alludes to the round seed-pods — 

 matrimony ever being greatly dependent on money. It is 

 likely, however, that "matrimony plant" is a corruption of 

 "money-plant." Lunaria rcdiz'iva is called "satin flower" 

 "satin pod" and '.'perennial satin flower." It is in reference 

 to these two species that the botanist, Asa Gray, is said to have 

 perpetrated a bit of sly humor in his "Field, Forest and Gar- 

 den Botany." After the first he writes "common honesty, 

 not native to the country but cultivated in old fashioned 

 places" and after the second, "perennial honesty, a much rarer 

 sort, seldom met with here." 



HOLLY AND MISTLETOE 



TTOLLY and mistletoe are regarded as symbolic of the 

 ^ ■'■ Christmas spirit. The~ holiday season does not seem to 

 have been properly observed unless there is at least one spray 

 of holly flaunting its red berries from some prominent posi- 

 tion in the house, or a sprig of mistletoe so placed as to catch 

 unsuspecting folk. 



Horticulturists will tell you that holly belongs to the genus 

 Ilex; that there are over four hundred species, some of which 



