THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 119 



when crushed and the root is a strong emetic. The wax-myrtle 

 grows abundantly along the coast from southern New Jersey 

 to Texas. 



As civilization advances and modern conveniences 

 increase, we are apt to forget about the devious ways in which 

 our forefathers obtained the necessities and comforts of life, 

 and the interesting legends which surrounded many of the 

 objects which were formerly utilized daily. Such data should 

 be recorded before it passes into oblivion and the interesting 

 facts thus be lost to posterity. 



A NEW OAK 



By James M. Bates. 



A SI was walking the streets of Washington in October, 

 -*■■*- 1913, I found a row of shingle oaks (Quercits imbri- 

 caria) in front of the Treasury Building. They were the 

 first I had ever seen in nature. Consequently I stopped to 

 examine them and to my astonishment found one tree on which 

 some of the leaves were entire while others had from one to 

 three large teeth, mostly near the upper end. I immediately 

 said "there is nothing like that in Britton & Brown, I am 

 sure." I took three twigs and hunted for more like them. I 

 found one more tree across the street. Two days later I took 

 Mr. Paul Hartley of the Forest Division and pointed the trees 

 out to him, charging him to collect more twigs with acorns 

 the coming year for study, the late frost of 1912 having taken 

 all the flowers of this species around Washington. I sent a 

 photo of the twigs to Dr. Charles S. Sargent the next spring, 

 and acting on my suggestion he also had friends collect twigs 

 with acorns. I am not enough versed in the study of the genus 

 to profitably describe the acorns which Mr. Hartley sent me 



