THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 85 



discovered the fact that there were on the single plant no less 

 than twelve hundred and eig-hty-seven flowers and flower-buds. 

 Nearly all species of mullein set seed freely and this species 

 is no exception. Allowing thirty seeds to a capsule, which is 

 rather under the average than above it, we have more than four 

 thousand seeds from a single plant. It is little wonder that 

 mulleins are common in suitable places. All these seeds, how- 

 ever, cannot grow though doubtless many spring up only to 

 be crowded out by some relative more fortunately situated. A 

 short time ago, we observed great numbers of some seedling 

 spurge growing in a low spot in a meadow and out of curiosity 

 removed a square inch of soil and counted the number of seed- 

 lings upon it. There were one hundred and seventeen, each 

 trying to develop in a space not large enough for one, and in 

 the midst of square yards as thickly populated. 



The Tallest Tree. — In New South Wales, Victoria and 

 Tasmania grows a species of gum-tree. Eucalyptus amygdalinn 

 which probably represents the tallest of all trees on the globe. 

 The loftiest specimen of this tree yet measured towers to the 

 heig'ht of four hundred and seventy-one feet. A prostrate 

 tree measured in Victoria, was four hundred and twenty feet 

 long and the distance from the roots to the lowest branch was 

 two hundred and ninety-five feet. At that point the trunk 

 was four feet in diameter, and three hundred and sixty feet 

 from the butt the diameter was still three feet. The wood of 

 this tree is hard and of good quality. It grows quickly and 

 yields a great quantity of volatile oil from its leaves .vhich 

 are very abundant. 



Swamp Vegetation of Japan. — We are frequently told 

 that the vegetation of Japan and Eastern North America re- 

 semble each other in a number of particulars, but we rarely ap- 

 preciate how close the resemblance is at times. A Japanese 

 botanist has recently published in the Botanical Magazine an ac- 

 count of the vegetation of a swamp near Tokyo, and the list of 



