16 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST, 



For Exchange.— Dr. Rensselaer J. Smith, of Metomi, 

 San Bernardino Count^^ California, wishes to exchange 

 seeds, bulbs and herbarium specimens of the plants of his 

 region for others. 



Growth of the Foroet-me-noT.— A friend took a 

 root of the forget-me-not (Alyosotis) and put between two 

 of the stones that curbed the farm spring. E'er the season 

 was half gone, it festooned the sides to the very water's- 

 edge, and the blooms were twice the size ol those growing 

 in the garden. — Mrs. A. E. Goetting, CincinnRtti, Ohio. 



Willow Bark for Smoking. — According to the At- 

 lantic Slope Naturalist the Indians of the north-western 

 United States used the dried bark of the red willow for 

 smoking, either alone or mixed with tobacco. Unfortun- 

 ately the magazine does not state the species of willow 

 from which the bark is obtained. It is commonly sup- 

 posed that the bark of the silky cornel {Cornus sericea) 

 was smoked by the Indians under the name of kinnikinnik, 

 but this does not seem well authenticated. More data is 

 desirable. 



Devices for Checking Tranpiration. — The summer 

 along the coast of the Bay of Naples is long and dty^ and 

 the plants of the region have been obliged to develop 

 various means of checking the evaporation of water from 

 their tissues in order to exist there. A writer in the Bot- 

 anical Gazette in discussing the flora, lists thirt3'-six of 

 the common species with their means for hindering trans- 

 piration. From this it appears that one of the principal 

 factors is the absence of stomata from the upper surface 

 of the leaves. A large number have leaves of this nature 

 while a still larger number have leathery leaves or leaves 

 that are hairy or downy. Among other devices in this 

 line maybe mentioned minute leaves, or leaves that fall off 

 in summer, leaves that are more or less vertical, leaves 

 with gloss\^ epidermis, or with stomata sunk in pits, or 

 containing aromatic substances. Many of the plants 

 mentioned possess several of these characteristics. The 



