18 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



Beauty in Scientific Names. — "A rose by any other 

 name" might have appeared all right to Shakespeare, but most 

 of us confess to a mild liking for euphonious names whether 

 common or scientific. It is therefore a distinct shock to dis- 

 cover that A. A, Heller recently perpetrated Lupinus Pipcr- 

 smithii as the name of a Californian legume. Perhaps, how- 

 ever, the name will harmonize very well with horned toads. 

 Gila monsters and other strange creations in that sunbaked part 

 of the earth. 



The Tropical Rain Forest. — Those who have lx)t- 

 anized in the temperate zone, onl3^ may be c|uite familiar with 

 the tropical rain forest as it appears in literature, but they are 

 not likely to have a very vivid conception of it as it really ex- 

 ists. In our part of the world it is almost impossible to imagine 

 the effect upon the forest w^here it rains daily, often in torrents, 

 and where moisture and light are at the maximum. In such 

 places the constant moisture makes it possible for plants teJ 

 grow upon the branches of trees, the roofs of houses, stone 

 walls and similar situations. The trunks and larger branches 

 of trees in the rain forest are often so loaded down with epi- 

 phytes — principally ferns, orchids, wild pines, lycopods, mosses 

 and lichens — that they can scarcely be seen. The rainfall that 

 makes all this possible is also hard to realize. A recent rain- 

 storm recorded in the Philippines resulted in a precipitation of 

 more than 88 inches in four days. That is, enough water fell 

 in four days to cover every square foot of surface in that region 

 more than seven feet deep. Nearly three feet of water (34 

 ins.) fell in one day. This however, is by no means the limit. 

 In the Khasi hills at the head of the Bay of Bengal a rainfall of 

 nearly ten feet (114.4 in.) occurred in five consecutive days in 

 June, 1876. The record precipitation belongs to a small region 

 in eastern Jamaica near Silver Hill, where in November, 1909, 

 eleven feet and a quarter of rain fell in eight days. The writer 

 of this note has a very vivid mental picture of the spot men- 



