1« THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



violets make their appearance again in the fall, to give us a fare" 

 well visit, as it seems, before winter comes. The Viola pa- 

 pilionacca blooms profusely in shady places in late September 

 and w^ith the prairie violet ( J\ pcdafifido) have been obsen^ed 

 as late as the last days of October. This season the writer .saw, 

 for the first time, the yellow violet (J\ pubcsccus) in bloom in 

 the fall. One solitary flower made its appearance about Oc- 

 tober 24th and was obsen'ed for several days. The heavy 

 frosts of the time did not seem to hurt it. Some years ago the 

 writer observed an interesting case of a plant blooming out of 

 season, when he found a pasque flower in bloom on the fourth 

 of July. The flowers w-as undersized and the sepals pale al- 

 most white. — B. O. JVoIdai, IVallingford, lozva. 



The Gogo Vine. — Visitors to almost any tropical sea- 

 coast are likely to find cast up with the shells and other flotsam 

 and jetsam certain large flattened chestnut colored beans two 

 inches or more in diameter, lliese are sometime know^n as sea 

 beans because ocean currents frequently bear them long dis- 

 tances and cast them up on shores foreign to the plants that 

 bear them. The beans are the seeds of an immense tropical 

 climber and are borne in huge pods that are often four feet 

 long. The plant, which is known to science as Entada scair 

 dens, and in common parlance as gogo vine, contains saponin or 

 vegetable soap and the bark and seeds are said to be much used 

 by tropical people as a hair wash. The bark is thoroughly 

 beaten and imparts a reddish tinge to tlie water. Taken in- 

 ternally tlie juice of the bark is reported to be of value in asth- 

 ma. The hard polished seed-coat also has its uses and in other 

 days was often made into snufif-boxes. 



Definitions in Genetics. — There is one branch of bo- 

 tanical science that is moving so rapidly that for a time it bids 

 fair to leave many otherwise excellent students far in the rear. 

 This branch is plant breeding and its very newness makes new 

 terms necessary'. In Science recentlv. Geo. H. Shull has de- 



