THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 135 



I called it a tulip when I first looked upon it in 1889. It 

 opens uj) like the tulip, forniinj^ a purple cup with sepals and 

 l)etals an inch and a half wide. The leaves when they come 

 later are hirsute. The seeds have l<>n,<( silky hairs to help 

 them to unoccupied j^round. — J . M. Hates, Red Cloud, Ncbr. 



In a re,i,non like the .i^-'reat State of New ^'()rk, remark- 

 able for the variety and i)rofusion of its vejjetation. rich be- 

 yond all dreaming in both fiowerinj.^ and n(m-fl(jwerin<,^ plants, 

 a paradise for the botanist, it would be most difiicult to 

 select the one that arouses the greatest or most abidinj^ 

 interest. So, instead of trying to make such a selection, I 

 shall take at random a plant that always excites my admir- 

 ation, because here, it is the first to thrust its brave hope 

 up through the snow and make green the waterways and 

 swampy places, thereby expressing its faith and unwaver- 

 ing trust in the coming of spring. Then. too. I am al- 

 ways filled with w^onder at the marvelous beauty of its 

 compact coil of green and its ruddy, shell-like, many-colored 

 spathe inclosing the stout spadix close-set with perfect, laven- 

 der-colored flowers. There is such a blending of many 

 colors as to give the whole a peculiar charm. — I wTite of the 

 skunk cabbage, {Syinplocarpus foetidus). 



In view of its early coming, and notwithstanding its 

 strong odor, which, by the way, does not persist like that of 

 the skunk but readily washes ofi', it seems to me desirable to 

 give the plant a name as appropriate as the one it bears and 

 far less obnoxious. Therefore I suggest the name "Pioneer 

 l)lants." — /. Milford McKcc, Mt. Vernon, X. V. 



