22 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



can live in regions almost as forbidding as can the legumes. 

 Some whole families of plants seem equipped with these tuber- 

 cles, among which may be mentioned the various species of 

 Ceanothiis, the alders, the bayberries (Myrica) and the buf- 

 falo berries {Shepherdia) and Elaeagnus. 



Leaves on Fruits. — A correspondent mentions finding 

 a large berry of Mitchella repens with a tiny, perfect leaf grow- 

 ing on either side of its two eyes and asks if sprouting seeds 

 sent out the leaves from miniature plants. This curious oc- 

 currence is not due to sprouting seeds, as surmised but is a 

 natural abnormality if one may so express it ; that is, it is an 

 occurrence quite in line with the laws of plant structure. In 

 the partridge berry ( Mitchella) the twin flowers are borne 

 upon a compound fruit which must consist not only of the 

 ovary but part of the flower stalk as well. A flower, or flower 

 cluster either, for that matter, is essentially a transformed 

 branch ; so the leaves, which normally grow from branches, 

 are not out of place when appearing on such fruits though 

 nature rarely makes such disposition of them. 



Mythology and the Day Lilies. — If there is a group 

 of plants anywhere that is better known under its generic name 

 than that of the Funkias or day lilies, that group does not come 

 to mind as we write. They are natives of China, Japan and 

 Eastern Siberia but for more than a hundred years have been 

 familiar garden plants in Europe and America. There is 

 scarcely an old fashioned garden in the North Temperate zone 

 without its clump of plantain or day lilies. In the early days 

 of plant study several attempts to attach different names to the 

 group were made but the nomenclature soon settled down to 

 Funkia and thus the plants have since borne. But well-settled 

 names are nothing to the name-tinker, if there is a chance to 

 substitute for them "something just as good," hence we find 

 an officer of the New York Botanical Garden proposing in a 



