114 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



and probably are. More than three thousand of the flowers 

 examined had disagreeable odors of various kinds, but these, 

 again, did not seem to be disagreeable to the insects but on the 

 other hand were often attractive. 



Experiments with Elder-berry. — There are various 

 substances known w^hich may be used as a test for acids and^ 

 alkalis, turning one color in the presence of an acid and another 

 in the presence of an alkali. The most commonly used agent 

 in this work is litmus paper made by soaking paper in a solu- 

 tion of litmus derived from a species of lichen. When blue 

 litmus paper is dipped into an acid it at once turns pink, and 

 when dipped into an alkali it turns blue again. These changes 

 may be kept up indefinitely. A similar color change may be 

 produced in the juice of the common elder-berry. If a few 

 drops of vinegar or other acid be added to it, it turns a deep 

 pink and if soda or some other alkali is added to it, the pink 

 disappears and a blue color takes its place. Indeed, this cur- 

 ious change of color seems dependent upon similar conditions 

 throughout plant life. A red geranium or other red flower 

 may be made blue by immersing in ammonia or any strong al- 

 kali or turned back to red by an acid. 



Meaning of Amaryllis. — I do not quite agree with the 

 explanation given in the Botanist that the w^ord Amaryllis 

 comes from the Spanish word amarillo, meaning yellow. In 

 looking up the matter, I find that Linnaeus gave the name to 

 the group of plants called by Tournefort, Dillenius and other 

 pre-Linnaeans by the name, impossible under Linnaean rules, 

 Lilio Narcissus. I say the name is impossible, because that 

 author would not tolerate two-worded generic names. In the 

 "Genera Plantarum" of 1737, he therefore changed the older 

 binary to Amaryllis, and first described several species under 

 that name the same year in that remarkably exact work of his, 

 "Hortus Cliffortianus," written during his sojourn in Holland 

 with George Cliffort in whose botanical garden and greenhouse 



