THE AMERICAN BOTANIST, 35 



Edible Nasturtiums. — Some species of the garden 

 ^nasturtium {Tropseolum) produce edible seeds which are 

 •often used when young in salads and pickles. It has re- 

 cently been discovered that the tubers produced by Tropae- 

 ■olutn tuberosum are edible also, though the one who did 

 the experimenting reports that he cannot recommend 

 them as palatable. 



Latex as Protection from Insects.— In many bot> 

 anical works it is intimated that the milky juice of plants 

 protect them from the depredations of ants and other 

 crawling insects by exuding from punctures made by their 

 claws and thus holding them fast. The originator of this 

 story evidently imagined that ants are equipped with 

 spurs, and climb the weed stalks much as electric linemen 

 ascend telegraph and telephone poles. Possibly in a very 

 few cas2S the epidermis may be punctured by insects 

 crawling over it, but one only need watchfor a short time, 

 such plants as milkweed, dog's-bane and dandelion, to 

 know that they are not so punctured. It is said that the 

 prickly lettuce is protected in the way indicated. Will 

 someone investigate and report ? 



Rare Ohio Grape Ferns.— Mr. Almon N. Rood re- 

 ports the finding of both the matricary grape fern {Botry 

 chium matricarifefolium) and the lance-leaved grape fern 

 {B. lanceolatum), near Garrettsville, Ohio, last summer. 

 The species are not new to the State flora, but both are so 

 rare in Ohio as to make their discovery important, especi- 

 ally as this is the limit of their southern range in the Cen- 

 tral States. Thus far specimens have been found only in 

 Portage county. It is a remarkable fact in connection 

 with these two species that one is seldom found without 

 the other. No theory to explain this has been advanced 

 unless the suggestion regarding the two principal forms 

 of the common grape fern {Botrychium tefnatum) is ap- 

 plicable. By some it is believed that the one called obli- 

 quutn and the one called dissectum are but two phases of 

 the same species and that spores from a single sporangium 

 may reproduce either one. 



