NOTE and COMMENT 



The Jasmine. — There are few better illustrations of the 

 confusion that results when common names alone are used 

 than in the one embodied in the title of this paragraph. When 

 the name yellow jasmine is used, Gelsemium sempervirens, one 

 of the Loganiaceae is usually meant. This plant, however, is 

 often called false yellow jasmine, and when we hunt for the 

 true one, we find another yellow jasmine or rather yellow jes- 

 samine (Jasminum fruticans) which, with the white jessamine 

 (/. officinale), represents the Jasminaceae in the southern 

 United States. The last mentioned species is exceedingly fra- 

 grant and yields the oil of jessamine used by the perfumer. Its 

 yellow congener, however, lacks fragrance and the uninformed, 

 inclined to classify flowers by their most obvious characteris- 

 tics, are inclined to substitute the fragrant Gelsemium semper- 

 virens for it in any mental conception of the genus he may 

 make. The cape jessamine, also common to the South, is still 

 another species that needs to be distinguished. It belongs to 

 the Rubiaceae and is known as Gardenia ftorida. Though 

 called cape jessamine it is not a native of the Cape of Good 

 Hope but comes from China. Jasmine fruticans is also an 

 exotic from southern Europe and /. officinale is from Asia, so 

 that the false yellow jasmine is the only true native in the list. 



Yellow Buffalo Berries. — All the leading manuals of 

 botany state that the buffalo berry {Shcpherdia argentea) has 



