14 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



Flora" does not credit the closed gentian {G. andrezvsii) with 

 a range as far south as Texas. It is reported to extend only 

 to Georgia and Missouri. Another species which might be 

 mistaken for it is the soapwort gentian {G. saponaria) which 

 extends to Louisiana. We hope our correspondent will en- 

 deavor to discover the identity of his plant. If it is the true 

 closed gentian the range has thus been considerably extended. 

 If not, then the fragrance can be accounted for as character- 

 istic of some other species. — Ed.] 



The Crops of 1910. — Last year the farmers of this 

 country produced 3000 million bushels of corn, 700 million 

 bushels of wheat, 1000 million bushels of oats, 328 million 

 bushels of potatoes, 512 thousand tons of cane sugar, 158 

 million bushels of barley, 32 million bushels of rye, 15 million 

 bushels of flax seed and like quantities of several other crops 

 not to mention sufficient vegetation to support all the wild ani- 

 mals including insects and birds. And all this was made by 

 the plants from the carbon-dioxide in the air and water from 

 the soil and put together in the green cells of the plant by the 

 wonderful energy derived from sunlight. 



Germination of Seeds. — An old proverb well known to 

 the farmer runs "one year's seed, seven year's weed," mean- 

 ing that if the weed crop is allowed to go to seed one year, "t 

 will take seven years to get rid of the plants that will spring 

 up as a result. MIost gardeners know that many good seeds 

 even when carefully sown, do not all come up the first year. 

 In some cases this delayed germination has been shown to be 

 due to the fact that the seed-coats exclude the oxygen necessary 

 for this process and in others, such as the nelumbo and canna 

 the hard outer coat or testa may exclude water also. The 

 seeds of peaches, plums and nut trees in general often do not 

 come up until the second year unless planted in autumn so that 

 the frost can help in splitting the hard shell. There are doubt- 



