164 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



the nectarine, the damson, the plum, and the prune. These 

 are anglicised forms of the old Greek and Latin names that 

 liaA'e reached us after passing through some Romance tongue 

 — French, Italian or Spanish. Tliere is, I think, but one ex- 

 ception to this rule. The word, apple, is of the Teutonic 

 stock and accordingly we find that the apple is the only tree 

 fruit of any importance that is indigenous to the northern 

 part of Europe. The same is true of forest trees. The oak, 

 holm oak, ash, beech, hornbeam, yew, hawthorn, holly, aspen, 

 maple, lime, alder and elder all have Teutonic names,( indicat- 

 ing that they grew in northern countries in ancient times. 

 The names of the cypress, elm, chestnut, poplar, fig, myrtle, 

 box, sycamore, pine and larch are words of southern origin, 

 showing that these trees came from the south. This principle 

 runs through the whole list of plant names and therefore to 

 know the region from which the name of any plant came, 

 affords a fair presumption of the region where it is indigen- 

 ous. — T. S. Lindsay in "Plant Names." 



Amphichromy in Four-o'ci,ock. — There are many spe- 

 cies of plants which, under the hand of the plant breeder, 

 produce flowers of different colors but cases of amphichromy, 

 in which a single plant produces flowers of more Uian one 

 color, are extremely rare. An interesting case of this latter 

 kind has appeared in the writer's garden in which a specimen 

 of four o'clock {Mirabilis jalapa) which originally produced 

 pale pink flowers has developed more versatility and now pro- 

 duces red flowers, also, on some branches. As to the pink 

 flowers, it may be said that a close inspection shows the pink 

 to be due to a great number of tiny half-obscured red dots. 

 One might almost conclude that the pink form is on the way 

 to becoming a red one. The four o'clock produces a great var- 

 iety of color-forms ranging from white and yellow to deep 



