THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 77 



Compost Flower-pots. — According to Gardening a 

 machine has been invented for making flower-pots from 

 ordinary garden soil and co-w manure. Seedlings and cut- 

 tings started in such pots do not need to be transplanted, 

 but are set into the ground pot and all, thus preventing 

 any injury to the roots. The plants never know^ they have 

 been moved. 



Effect of Changes in Nomenclature. — In The Bo- 

 tanical Gazette for March Dr. W. J. Beal tells of burying 

 certain weed seeds twenty years ago with the idea of dig- 

 ging a few up each year to test their vitality. Such were 

 the changes in nomenclature, however, that before the ex- 

 periment ended he w^as digging up different species — at 

 least the names they are now known by are different from 

 those used when they were planted. 



Milkweed Chewing Gum. — The boys of the prairies 

 who pull off flower heads of rosin-weed, are matched by 

 the children of Grand Rapids, Michigan. These children 

 break the midribs of the leaves of the common milkweed 

 {Asclepias Cornuti) and the milkyjuice oozes out. Inafew 

 minutes it hardens, is collected and used for gum. I can- 

 not vouch for its flavor, not having tried it, but have the 

 assurance of one who has that "it was good." — H. C. 

 Skeels, Joliet, 111. 



Morning-glory Trees. — The note in Januar}^ Botan- 

 ist recalls visions of old "palo bianco" clumps down in 

 Southern Central Mexico. A thirty -foot Ipomoea arbores- 

 cens is a regular mine for an entomologist ; it is one of the 

 trees preferred by Morpho polyphemus, the huge white 

 butterfly so rare in collections, and man}- large and preci- 

 ous Scarabaeid beetles delight to feast upon its succulent 

 flowers. A smaller sister species occurs in the swamps 

 down in lower Vera Cruz around Volcan de Tuxtla; it is 

 an ugly looking coarse shrub or small tree. By the way, 

 let us not forget that Lower Burmah boasts of a hundred 

 foot fleabane(yer/2on/a).— O. W.Barrett, Mayaguez, P.R, 



