142 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



In passing through an extended colony of the narrow-leaved 

 goldenrod (SoUdago graminifoiia) recently, a faint, but never- 

 theless persistent sweet odor was noticed. When a small bunch 

 was gathered, the fragrance was very noticeable. The species, 

 therefore, should be added to the list of fragrant flowers. Mr. 

 C. L. Gruber also reports this as fragrant in Pennsylvania. 



New Use for Sphagnum. — The sphagnum moss, so 

 abundant in peat bogs the whole world around, has a variety of 

 uses, Nurseymen employ it almost exclusively in wrapping 

 plants for transportation, its porous nature enabling it to hold 

 moisture for a long time and so keeping the roots fresh. In 

 places where it is not exposed to moisture, it is often used as an 

 insulator and the Germans mix it with wool to form a rough 

 sort of cloth. . Its absorbent nature makes it an ideal bedding 

 material for stock and this quality has recently brought it into 

 use as a surgical dressing. The difficulty of securing sufficient 

 cotton has made it especially desirable. Although there are 

 more than forty species of sphagnum, only four species, Spagk- 

 nuni imbricatum, S. plaustre, S. papillosum and S. Magillani- 

 ciiin, are at present used. Absorbent cotton will hold only four 

 or five times its weight of water but the sphagnums will hold 

 nearly twenty times their weight. The British War Office re- 

 cently ordered 20,000,000 spaghnum pads and our own govern- 

 ment has given large orders for this kind of surgical dressing. 

 The spaghnum pads are composed of a layer of spaghnum 

 backed by a layer of ordinary cotton and enclosed in thin gauze. 

 Peach Pits and the War. — Some people may be wonder- 

 ing how peach pits and the shells of nuts are any better for mak- 

 ing charcoal for gas masks than ordinary wood. The answer is 

 in part that the harder parts of plants, such as the shells of nuts, 

 are not made of ordinary wood cells, but of still harder cells 

 called stone cells. Cells of this kind are often encountered in 

 pears as gritty particles. For some reason the charcoal made 

 from stone cells will absorb a much larger amount of gas than 



