40 THE PLANT WORLD. 



reason, that its favorite food eieiiicnts were so depleted by its former 

 prodigious growth that it can no longer multiply as formerl}-. If this 

 be true may not the grand break up in 1896 be traced to the same 

 cause, insufKcient food or partial starvation? It was attributed to 

 high water, but there is high water every fall in the region of the 

 hyacmth's principal growth, and the water could hardly have been 

 higher in 1896 than in years previous or subsequent. It may be that 

 some future year will witness another thinning out of the hyacinths, 

 but there is no longer any cause for anxiety on that score. 



This curious and beautiful plant furnished a good example in pro- 

 ducing variations in form. In depauperate growths the petiole consists 

 of little more than the characteristic inflation, making it as broad as 

 long, whereas in localities most favorable to its growth this enlargment 

 almost disappears, and the slender petiole attains a length of a yard. 



Although the hyacinth produces some seed, its increase is probably 

 by offshoots almost exclusively. Its progress up streaju may have 

 been accomplished by means of the tide and passing l)oats. That it 

 has not spread to the multitudinous lakes and ponds may be attributed 

 to the fact that by the recurving of the spikes the seeds are placed out 

 of reach of birds and animals as well as wind. 



THE VELVET DOGBANE IN OHIO. 



By A. Wetzsteim. 



LAST spring I was lucky enough to find some tiny plants of Ajxi- 

 ciinxim ■])uhe8cen>< R. Br., just coming out of the ground near the 

 same place where, in June, 1898, I had taken a))Out 6 speci- 

 mens of this exceedingly rare plant, of which, in the Illustrated P'lora, 

 of Britton & Brown it is stated: "The onlv specimen seen bv us was 

 collected by C. C. Parry, in Polk County, Iowa, July, 1867." 



How eagerly I watched them to secure another lot of s})ecimens 

 for my friends! But alas! One day when I came back to my plants, 

 they were gone. An oilwell had been "shot"" nearby, and the black 

 pernicious stuff', unfurtunately spouting and flowing that direction, 

 had killed my rarities. 



What produces — by the way^the deadly eflect of the coal oil on 

 plant life? I don't think that it is a real poison for })lants, because I 

 see some of them growing and flourishing near oil wells and oil ponds, 



