THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 91 



conspicuous. The heads of flowers are bracted and there 

 are various scales surrounding the individual flowers 

 which may be called the perianth, though many do not so 

 regard them. 



When the fruits of the cat-tail are'ripe the silky hairs 

 on the gynophores form excellent parachutes, by means of 

 which they float away on the wind. Should they alight 

 on water they float about for some days when the fruit 

 opens and allows the seed to drop to the bottom. In 

 germination the ^^oung plant pushes out through a sort 

 of trap door in the end of the seed. 



The stems of our species are in the form of rootstocks 

 buried in the mud, often beneath the w^ater. From these the 

 leaves rise in two equal ranks and usually become nearly 

 erect. If one will examine the leaves he will often find 

 them twisted in two or three turns. According toKerner 

 this is to lessen the force of the wind, the leaves simply 

 turning with the blast instead of breaking. 



The burr-reeds are mostly found in the North Temper- 

 ate Zone. There is one species in New Zealand. The cat- 

 tails extend to the Tropics. Our common species ( Typha 

 latifolia) is found around the world, and others are as 

 widely distributed. 



FRINGED GENTIAN NOTES. 



BY J. FORD SEMPERS. 



IN raising the fringed gentian from seed I notice the plants 

 are capable of being rather closely crowded the first 

 season without appearing to suffer greatly. Indeed they 

 seem to thrive best when the low-lying leaves have just 

 room enough to cover the intervening space between ad- 

 joining plants. Thusfar with me, the plants seem content 

 with very meagre opportunities for growth the first ytsir. 

 When I have attempted to give additional room and other 

 adjuncts tending to insure greater growth I have been 

 rewarded v^^ith scarcel^^ larger plants than those taken 

 from closely planted groups. 



It is quite likely that in raising these that it has not 



