THE PLANT WORLD. 91 



over 's haid. jMy ol' mar' she jis uppen duinpl me in ther road "n' 

 tuck to ther woods, "n" w'en I got back atter ketchin' her, they-all "d 



J CD ^ 



gone. Wat yeou-all gwine ter do with 'en w'en yeoii all get 'm 

 fed? 



One day in Binghamton, New York, vasculnm in hand, I was 

 passing a house in which I had attended a woman in confinement a day 

 or so before. On the curb sat two little children playing. The boy 

 glanced up as I passed, and I heard him whisi)er loudly to his com- 

 panion: "Say Ellie, what you think the Doctor's got in that tin l)ox;" 

 the little girl responded in a supercilious but confiding tone "Umph, 

 don't you know — babies". 



THE VIOLETS ON LONG ISLAND. 

 By AVm. L. Fishek. 



THE wide level tract of land in the west-central j^art of Long 

 Island, known as Hempstead Plains, is rather unsatisfactory 

 ground for botanical collectors. On account of the very dry, 

 sandy soil, few of the early spring flowers, that are common in other 

 parts of the state, can be found there. One searches in vain for the 

 spring beauty or the trailing arbutus, and the blood-root and the he- 

 patica are seen but rarely in the hills on the northern border of the 

 plains. 



One forgets, however, all his disappointment at the absence of 

 these old friends, as soon as the violets begin to appear. From the 

 latter part of April until the first of June there are violets ever^'where. 

 An acquaintance of two years has led to the identification of ten 

 species, four of which are very abundant in this region. One of the 

 first flowers of the season is V/o/a pi(hescens, which is somewhat rare 

 in the open woodlands. Closely following this comes ]^. jxt/hx/fa, 

 which I have found in large numbers in a recently cleared wood-lot, 

 just north of Hyde Park. At the same place I found a very few 

 specimens of V. villosa, which is, 1 think, a new station for this 

 species. 



The violets that are most common here are F. o/u/ft/ and Y. jM'data. 

 The former may be found in sandy places where there is not enough 

 veofetation to cover the ground, and the latter is everywhere, in such 

 quantities that some of the fields are actually blue instead of green. 



