8 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



Here, then, is a case in which the retardation was throughout 

 the entire tree and not confined to a few leaves. Similar trees, 

 I believe have been seen elsewhere. The surrounding trees 

 appeared to have the normal arrangement and number, of 

 course in a general way, of lobed and non-lobed leaves. 



The third case is similar to the preceding, in that all the 

 leaves on the tree were affected. In this instance the tree was 

 a young tulip tree, about fifteen feet high, growing on a rocky 

 hillside in the upper part of the Hemlock Grove, Bronx Park, 

 New York City. The leaves were larger than the average 

 Liriodendron leaf, but were, without exception, much simpler 

 in outline, possessing none of the characteristic lobing. These, 

 too, though comparatively longer, reminded one of the 

 cotyledons. 



As to the cause of these retardations I can say nothing, 

 though in the tulip-tree it may have been the poor soil, but 

 this reason could not be urged for the other cases. Whatever 

 the causes they probably affected the leaf in its embryonic 

 condition. 



New York City. 



LOCAL NAMES OF FLOWERS. 



By Mrs. Flora Swetnam. 



SOMETIMES when one takes up the study of botany af- 

 ter arriving at a mature age, one is often surprised and 

 delis-hted to find under a new name the old friends of child- 

 hood. The thing that confuses us and causes us to fail to 

 recognize them when we read one of the common names in 

 some story or magazine is, that many of them have several 

 common names, a different on? for each locality, and it is only 

 when we run them to earth in a text book that we exclaim: 

 "Why I know that ! it's a very old friend ; grandmother called 

 it so and so." 



