THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 151 



Maclure.' The scientific name for osage orange is Toxylon 

 pomiferum Raf. The term Toxylon was applied to this genus 

 by Rafinesque in the 'American Monthly Magazine' in the 

 year 1817, vol. 2, p. 118. Nuttall's Madura was not published 

 until 1818. The second mistake in this statement by Professor 

 Nelson lies in attributing the term Toxylon to Sargent who was 

 not yet born when Rafinesque published the term." 



Spindle Tree. — One of the most curious and interesting 

 of ornamental shrubs is the Japanese spindle tree ( Euonyuius 

 alatus). Its flowers are small and of no especial beauty, but 

 its branches are winged with from two to four broad ribbons 

 of cork that give it a most unique appearance in any collection 

 of plants, especially during the season when most plants are 

 leafless. In autumn its leaves become blood red and for a 

 considerable time add much color to the shrubberies. The 

 American forms of the spindle tree (Euonyinus atro-pwrpureus 

 and E. Americanus) are more familiarly known as burning 

 bush, strawberry bush, or wahoo. These have neither hand- 

 some flowers nor brilliant foliage, but the fruits, especially 

 those of E. atro-purpureus, have pinky-white capsules which, 

 when ripe, open, disclosing the scarlet arils after the manner of 

 its relative, the bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) and thus give 

 a distinctive note of color to our autumn woods. 



Proliferation of Calendula. — We have received from 

 Mrs. Nellie W. Masson of Indianapolis, an interesting flower- 

 head of pot marigold (Calendula) in which one of the florets, 

 instead of blooming like the rest, has produced a stem nearly 

 three inches long with a smaller though perfect flower-head of 

 its own. This is an additional proof of the fact, long known, 

 that the flower is essentially a transformed branch. All the 

 floral organs can be shown to be leaf like in origin. This being 

 the case it is not strange that on occasion the flower should 

 display branchlike characteristics. Such occurrences, however, 

 are always worth reporting. The common geranium (Pelar- 

 gonium) often produces a second truss of flowers from the 

 midst of the first ones. 



