THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 47 



fearing some harm to the flower, I had to arrest thedeveU 

 opment by pressing the unusual find. In ourgarden there 

 is a rose bush which for some years behaved itself as nor- 

 mal bushes do, but for at least five years back, the hearts 

 of the roses would be pierced by buds. This^ I believe is 

 not by any means unusual. But the course of the flower 

 above was another story. 



In a marshy place at Avon, N. J., a fallen tree, moss 

 clothed, made a beautiful background for a group of white 

 fringed orchids (Hahennria blephariglottis) which were 

 shielding a number of their small pale yellow sisters {H, 

 cristata). Hitherto every specimen seen has been a dwarf 

 but among about fifty of the glorious white beauties was 

 one with stem and flower-spike equally large but of the 

 beautiful pale yellow color oiH. cristata). Was it a yellow 

 form oi H. blephariglottis, or a giant i^. Cristata? Some 

 botanists think the three Habenarias— the white, pale and 

 orange 3'ellow — are one and the same plant, the variation 

 subject to location. My experience has been that where 

 the three are found together, cWstata and ciliaris are small 

 plants, w^hereas when H. ciliaris is found alone the plants 

 equal blephariglottis in size. Will any who have found 

 them give their observations ? 



Not far from the haunts of the tall orange orchids I 

 found a plant of ladies' tresses three feet in height, the 

 floral part three and a half inches long. In the same wet 

 meadow, among the sea pinks, was one with a rosy pink 

 and a pure white flower on the same branch. 



Near Indian Castle Creek, a few miles from Little Falls, 

 N. Y., we found four edible fungi, each measuring at least 

 twenty-seven inches in circumference, the largest over 

 thirty inches. Thej^ were immense puff-balls with brain- 

 like convolutions. This species, Calvatia maxima, is pre- 

 pared by cutting in slices, turning in bread crumbs and 

 frying. Each of us tied her mushroom into her jacket and 

 carried it in this way to the canal boat, which took us to 

 Little Falls — five miles in four and a half hours. 



At VanCourtlandt Park, on September thirteenth, 



