THE AMERICAN BOTANIST m 



tioned having botanized there some years ago. The most 

 crowded conservatory in onr cooler latitude l)ut faintly repre- 

 sents the crowd of species there. Tree ferns vied with flowering" 

 plants for room to spread their leaves, the ground was one ex- 

 tensive carpet of selaginellas, mosses and ferns, and with every 

 passing shower, water dripped from a thouasnd filmy ferns and 

 mosses on the trees to fall upon and renew tlie verdure below. 



Legumes in a New Role. — Everybody, nowadays, 

 knows that legumes add nitrogen to the soil they grow in for 

 the reason that they have certain bacteria living on their roots 

 that take nitrogen from the air and fix it in the soil in a form 

 that plants can use, but it is not well known that legumes, in 

 some way actually facilitate the absorption of nitrogen by other 

 plants when grown with them. Timothy grass grown with 

 such other legume forage crops as alfalfa, red clover and peas 

 showed a gain in protein content of from fifty to one hundred 

 and sixty pounds per ton. the protein, of course, requiring* 

 nitrogen in its composition. This gives an additional reason 

 for the custom, common among farmers, of growing clover and 

 grasses together. For more than a hundred years the fact 

 that a legume might aid a non-legume to obtain a store of nitro- 

 gen when grown with it, has been hinted at, but it is only re- 

 cently that careful experiments have placed the supposition 

 upon a solid basis of proof. 



Parthenocarpic Fruits. — A great many more flowers 

 are produced than ever give rise to fruits. In some species if a 

 fruit should result from every flower that opens, the plant 

 would be unable to form sufficient food to bring them to ma- 

 turity to say nothing of the weight that would have to be sup- 

 ported. We find, therefore, that almost as soon as the flowers 

 close, the plant begins to cut many of them off. In the case of 

 the apple fifty or more young fruits are cut off for each one that 

 remains on the tree. It is commonly believed that the plant 

 cuts off only those flowers that failed to be pollinated, but this 



