94 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



Flowers of the Compass Plant. — The compass 

 plant {Silphium laciniatum) and others of the same genus 

 are well known to turn most of their leaves in a general 

 north and south direction with their edges toward the sk3^ 

 and earth ; but it is not generally known that the flowers 

 also have a peculiarity in the w^ay they face. In an old 

 number of Garden and Forest, E. J. Hill notes that a 

 majority of the flowers face the east and do not turn with 

 the sun as those of the sunflower do. 



Regarding the Perfume of Hepatica. — As I have 

 observed this only in \ery early spring, I had concluded 

 that the hepatica is only fragrant when it first opens. 

 However, 3'our suggestion that possibly moist air or the 

 temperature, may have something to do with it, is well 

 taken and may possibly be the explanation. To what is 

 the various shades of color — deep blue, pink, white — of the 

 sepal due ? Do they change with age or are they different 

 from the beginning ? My experience is that they are of 

 different colors and do not vary greatly with age. I find, 

 too, that the flowers are all, no matter what color, equal- 

 ly fragrant. — Charles C. Plitt, Baltimore, Md. 



Red Flowers of the West, — Should not Malvas- 

 tnim coccincum of the western prairie be added to the list 

 ot distinctly ^^f/ flow^ers ? Coulter gives its common name 

 as false mallow, and Miss Eastwood calls it red mallow. 

 It does not seem to have an3^ hint of orange, scarlet ordull 

 red, and I never heard the most careless oliserver call it 

 pink. It is a clear vermillion, lighter or darker as it varies 

 more or less towards w^hite. It grows in mats all over 

 Denver's vacant lots, and the prairies surrounding the 

 city. This mallow, the blue spiderwort and the big white 

 evening primrose form a color trio which glorifies Denver 

 streets in spring, and later is replaced by the suntiowers, 

 the white prickly poppy and the pinkish-magi.r. ta Cleome. 

 Gaura coccinca is also red when the blossoms first open, 

 but so quickly turns pink and then white in fading that 

 perhaps it could hardly be classed with flowers distinctly 

 red. — Mrs. Byron C. Leavitt. 



