THE A:MERiCAX IJOTAMST. 37 



The Lull l\ FlowerixCt. — Do collectors generally 

 recognize what I call the "lull period ?" I was out last 

 Sunday (June 26) in a woody tract and saw only Kalmia. 

 latifolifi, Melarnpyrum Virginicum jind Lyshnachia quad- 

 riiolia. A few we^ks earlier the same region teems with 

 flowers. — Wm. Whitman Bailey. {This is probably the 

 season in Dr. Bailey's locality- when the primitive flowers, 

 most of whose buds are formed in Autumn, or whose food 

 was stored up last year against the time ot fl-owering, 

 have ceased to bloom and before the great host of summer 

 plants have begun.. All species -except saprophj^tes or 

 parasites need to perfect leaves for carl)on assimilation 

 before the\^ can produce flowers. Our spring flo^A^ering 

 plants produce their leaves and lay up a food supply the 

 preceding season; the summer-flowering siDecies, on the 

 contrary-, lay up their food during spring and early 

 summer. It so happens in mo«t localities that this pre- 

 vents the flowering season from l>eing continuous, the lull 

 coming some time in June. — Ed.] 



White Majrsh Mallows. — Your article in June Bot- 

 anist on "Railroad Botanizing" suggested to me a sight I 

 se>e nearly every da^- (in the season) when going to New 

 York, which is a special delight to me. The marsh 

 mallow (Althasa officinalis) which grows in profusion on 

 the "Hackensack Meadows'"' — that stretch of marshy 

 meadow land which for my route (D. L. & W. R. R.) 

 stretches from Newark to the Palisades. Just now the 

 flowers are in their glory. 1 note several clumps with 

 white flowers, probably sports, ^vhich seem to be increas- 

 ing every year. I do not find in any botanical books a 

 reference to the existence of white flowered Althasa officin- 

 alis. They do not seem to occur in any particular place 

 as though conditions of soil, etc., had caused the change. — 

 Elwyn Waller, Morristown, N.J. [The editor has several 

 times collected this sport. Recently, however, Dr. Britton 

 has described it as a distinct species, finding in it what he 

 considers sufficient points of difference. Does anyone 

 know whether this plant will come true from seed ? — Ed.] 



