THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 111 



Varieties. — It is interesting to note that many of the 

 characteristics that we ascribe to varieties are found through- 

 out the plant world and are likely to crop out in the most di- 

 verse places. Among these may be mentioned dwarfs which 

 may appear in any species. Other equally common forms are 

 divided leaves, fasciated stems, white flowered forms, double 

 flowers, thornless forms, smooth forms in hairy species, weep- 

 ing or drooping forms, rose-colored forms of blue or purple 

 flowers, yellow berried foiTns of normally red or black species, 

 yellow flowers among red flowered forms, and so forth. A 

 little search among the wild plants of one's own neighborhood 

 will usually yield a variety of such specimens. Most of them 

 come true from seed or may be subdivided in various ways if 

 one desires to multiply the variety. One who has a taste for 

 gardening may find the cultivation and study of such forms a 

 most absorbing pastime. 



Science to Fit the Facts. — Shortly after the Darwin- 

 ian theory was announced with its implication that everything 

 that exists in nature has been called into existence because use- 

 ful to the organism possessing it, it became the fashion to in- 

 terpret every structure in this light with the result that some 

 very unscientific deductions were made, many of which still 

 linger on in popular works to vex the incautious student. A 

 good example of these interesting misinterpretations is found 

 in the function ascribed to the juice of the milkweed. This, 

 we are gravely told, exists for the purpose of protecting the 

 plant from the depredations of insects. "It has been found 

 that the outer covering of the stem is extremely delicate and 

 that the tiny claw-like feet of insects that attempt to crawl up 

 the stalk will cut through this covering sufficiently to cause the 

 feet of such visitors to become sticky with the milky fluid. This 

 not only discourages would-be pilferers of the flowers' sweets 

 but makes it quite impossible for them to reach the top of the 



