Wanted. — Short notes of interest to the general botanist 

 are always in demand for this department. Our readers are 

 invited to make this the place of publication for their shorter 

 botanical items. The magazine is issued as soon as possible 

 after the 15th of February, May, August and November. 



Spring Flowering Witch Hazel. — In a recent number 

 of the Kezi' Bulletin mention is made of a new witch-hazel from 

 Missouri that flowers in spring like the Asiatic species of this 

 genus. The specimens were sent from the Arnold Arboretum, 

 but it is surprising that we must get our information via Eu- 

 rope. If any of our readers know this interesting plant we 

 shall be glad to hear more of it. 



Fragrant Gentians. — Have just returned, this 18th 

 day of December, from a short walk in the Texas woods, 

 bringing with me blossoms of closed gentian, fresh and per- 

 fect — and two of them fragrant. A sweet odor, honey-like, 

 yet distinctively its own. Referring to Burroughs on my re- 

 turn to see if he had included it in his list of fragrant wild 

 flowers I find gentian is not there. In his "Nature and the 

 Poets" it is noticeable how a few degrees of latitude will put 

 the most careful assertions in error; for our gentian season 

 here in East Texas begins in October and ends only with the 

 year, holding out long after goldenrod, turtle-head and other 

 fall flowers are gone. Witch-hazel keeps season with the 

 gentian; but lasts no later here in the piney woods. Has the 

 fragrance of the closed gentian been noted before? And can 

 some Texas reader tell me if the fringed gentian has been 

 found in the state. — F. G. Kenesson. [Small's "Southern 



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