84 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



the parent tree. It i<. w ell-ki'.dwii that inaiu' seeds will not 

 grow as soon as they are "ripe," and the facts noted above no 

 doubt account for it. 



A Changeable Phlox. — The editor has had growing 'n 

 his grounds, the past summer, a s])ecimen of phlox possessing 

 the peculiarit}- of changing color according to the hour of the 

 day. In the early morning and at sunset, it is bhiish purple 

 and at mid-da}' it is a decided ])ink. ddiis is a real color 

 change and not due to the amount of light. There are many 

 species of tlowers known tliat change color as the age of the 

 bloom changes, such as the white trillium whicli turns rose 

 colored as it begins to wane, but flowers are rare that change 

 back to the original color again after the first change is made. 

 The behavior of the phlox mentioned is such as to suggest the 

 action of litmus pa]ier when transferred from an acid to an 

 alkaline medium. I'ossiljly the changes in the flowers mav be 

 explained in much the same way. Many plants with pink buds 

 open blue flowers due to the fact that the sap of the buds is 

 acid and that of the flowers is alkaline. It is likely that the 

 activities of our phlox may change the nature of tlie sap in 

 some way from hour to hour and thus cause the change in 

 color. 



Japanese Am I^lant. During the winter one may 



often find in the fl(M-ist's shops certain bright green featherv 

 sprays that are very ferndike or moss-like in appearance and 

 go by the name of Japanscse air plants or air ferns. Investi- 

 gation shows, however, that instead of being either ferns or 

 mosses, they do not even belong to the plant kingdom. They 

 are really colonies of sertularian hydroids — small .sea animals 

 allied to the corals and jelly li>hes — which, like the corals, 

 Imild up a common structure lo which the indi\-idual members 

 are attached. There are a great many different species of these 

 hydroids in the shallow places near the seashore and they are 



