84 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



normal, and continuing to encourage its peculiarities, it is 

 quite possible to breed up a pure strain very different from 

 the original. In these sudden changes of color, leaf form, 

 shape of petal, or doubling of parts, we see one of the muta- 

 tions of which present day evolutionists make so much. At 

 some future date, the editor hopes to give an account of some 

 of these oddities in his own collection. — Ed.] 



Seed Stalk of Black Acacia. — Nature does some 

 things with such exactness that we must always marvel at them. 

 One may be justified in saying that nature can count for she 

 rarely makes a mistake in the proper number of 

 parts to the flower, whether it be five-parted, 

 three-parted or composed of some other number. 

 She always hangs out the same kind of flowers in 

 exactly the same way and practically never gets 

 pansies or sweet-peas upside down. A further 

 instance of this exactness may be seen in the seed 

 stalk or funiculus of the black acacia of Califor- 

 nia to which our attention has been directed by 

 Dr. W. W, Munson. Our thanks are also due to 

 him for the material for the accompanying illustration. In this 

 acacia the seed stalk is unusually long and makes two nearly 

 complete folds about the seed. One might think that with so 

 many seeds to look after, nature might be excused for an oc- 

 casional slip but such slips practically never occur. Each seed 

 stalk upon leaving the seed passes half-way around it, then 

 doubles back on itself and goes around the seed until it nearly 

 meets the first turn after which it again bends back and is at- 

 tached to the pod. The length of the seed-stalk itself, is re- 

 markable. There are few genera of plants that can match it 

 in this respect. The magnolia family has something similar, 

 but here the seed stalk is more delicate and is coiled or folded 

 within the pulp that encloses the seed. 



