THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 15 



marketing the crops. In ten years we have spent 180 millions 

 in improving rivers and harbors but not a cent for good roads. 

 Progressive commonwealths liave.done something for their 

 own roads so that about two per cent of our roads are im- 

 proved, but we would like to see one or two battle ships 

 traded off for road making machinery. 



Color of Turtle-head Flowers. — In an article in the 

 American Botanist for August, a writer from Wisconsin says 

 the flowers of Chelone glabra are "decidedly cream colored." 

 Near my home, in the hills of Central Pennsylvania, these 

 flowers are always pink, being a deeper shade at the tip of the 

 corolla. — Nell McMurray, Nezv Washington, Pa. — [The 

 editor can add that while he does not recall any really pink 

 flowers, he has found possibly a majority of the flowers in 

 Southern New York to have the corolla tipped with pink. 

 Doubtelss the locality and perhaps the season may have some- 

 thing to do with it. In this connection it is of interest to note 

 that Chelone Lyoni a plant well known to dealers in wild 

 flowers, has deep pink corollas and is frequently planted for 

 ornament. — Ed. ] 



Fruiting of the Peanut. — Although the peanut is a 

 common and well-known plant, considerable mystery sur- 

 rounds its manner of fruiting, in the popular mind. The 

 blossoms are borne as any ordinary flowers are, but the fruits 

 are found under ground and many imagine that they are sim- 

 ilar to potatoes in the way they are formed. Various other 

 curious views as to their formation are held and there are not 

 a few people who think that after flowering, in order to have 

 peanuts, the blossoms must be picked off and buried about the 

 roots of the plant. Others have an idea that peanuts come 

 from cleistogamous flowers similar to those which produce 

 fertile violet pods. The real facts are these : The peanut 



