4 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



middle of May they are covered with Httle bunches of bottle- 

 shaped flowers which look like small white lamp chimneys 

 with the turned back tops a deep rosy red. These are followed 

 by large red berries, more ornamental than useful, as they are 

 filled with large seeds and are rather dry when ripe. 



I think there are fewer species of early flowers here than 

 in the East but through June, July and August there are more 

 flowers than I have ever seen in any one place in the East, 

 many of them very attractive, especially those of the pulse 

 family and some of the composites. 



PLANT HAIRS AND SCALES. 



By Mary McGowan. 



TV yiOST people have doubtless noticed the hairy or downy 

 ^^ ^ coating on the leaves, and stems of various plants, but 

 few have stopped to consider their structure, or realized that 

 many are not mere simple hairs as we would naturally sup- 

 pose, but may be foked, branched, many celled, and even with 

 the cells arranged in rosettes to form scales. 



It is a noticeable fact that plants having such structures 

 aie generally found growing in sunny places. The advantage 

 of the hairs in this case would be to retard evaporation by 

 shading the leaves from the sun. In most cases the hairs also 

 seem designed to protect the stomata or breathing pores 

 from being clogged by rain or dew, and still another advant- 

 age is that they protect the plant from sudden changes of tem- 

 perature. 



The epidermal hairs are also of use, in another way. 

 Animals seeing the hairy surface of a plant wmII turn away 

 from it, if they have tried to eat it before and if not they fail 

 to eat very much on account of the prickly sensation produced 

 on their tongues by the hairs. The branched hairs of the 

 Mullein are especially useful to the plant, as it flourishes 



