50 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



came well known under the generic name of Amaryllis 

 before the name-tinker got busy with them. Amaryllis 

 is a Latin word and its equivalent is found in the 

 Greek language, but there seems to be no meaning connected 

 with this word that would make it applicable to these plants. A 

 safer guess is that the plants were named for the Spanish word 

 Amarilla meaning yellow. These plants abound in Mexico 

 and other countries in which Spanish is spoken and it is quite 

 likely that species with yellow flowers sent to Linnaeus as 

 amirilla lilies induced him to give the name of Amaryllis to 

 the genus. The fact that several species have yellow or yellow- 

 ish flowers gives color to the suggestion. If any reader can 

 throw additional light upon this subject we shall be glad to 

 hear from him. 



Effects of Moisture on Wood. — The effect of water in 

 softening organic tissue, as in wetting a piece of paper or a 

 sponge, is well known, and so is the stiffening effect of drying. 

 The same law applies to wood: By different methods of seas- 

 oning two pieces of the same stick may be given very different 

 degrees of strength. Wood in its green state contains moist- 

 ure in the pores of the cells, like honey in a comb, and also in 

 the substance of the cell walls. As seasoning begins the moist- 

 ure in the pores is first evaporated. This lessens the weight of 

 the wood but does not affect its strength. It is not until the 

 moisture in the substance of the cell walls is drawn upon that 

 the strength of the wood begins to increase. Scientifically this 

 point is known as the "fiber-saturation point." From this con- 

 dition to that of absolute dryness the gain in the strength of 

 wood is somewhat remarkable. In the case of spruce the 

 strength is multiplied four times ; indeed, spruce, in small sizes, 

 thoroughly dried in an oven is as strong, weight for weight as 

 steel. Even after the reabsorption of moisture when the wood 

 is again exposed to the air the strength of the sticks is still from 

 50 to 150 per cent greater than when it was green. When, in 



