THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 83 



fooled. On the other hand botanists have not been wanting 

 who beheved that seeds occasionally germinate after long per- 

 iods of time. Gardening World quotes Dr. Lindley the well 

 known British botanist as follows : "I have at this moment 

 three plants of raspberries raised from seeds taken from the 

 stomach of a man whose skeleton was found 30 feet below the 

 surface of the earth at the bottom of a barrow which was open- 

 ed near Dorchester (England). He had been buried with some 

 coins of the emperor Hadrian and it is therefore probable that 

 the seeds were 1,600 or 1,700 years old." 



A Yellow Trillium. — Yesterday while on an excur- 

 sion to the woods with my class we came across a Trillium of 

 a shade of color which I had never seen before and which it 

 would appear has never been seen before by any one in this 

 part of the country. The inner three leaves of the perianth 

 were wholly a pure sulphur yellow, the outer leaves of the 

 perianth were pale green below but as bright a yellow above 

 as the inner part of the perianth. The other parts were nor- 

 mal in color and size. The flower was a newly opened one 

 and grew amongst a larger number of specimens of Trillium 

 grandifloruin. The peculiarity of color struck me as being so 

 unusual that I want to inquire if any of the readers of The 

 American Botanist have come across a similar freak in 

 color. — R. S. Hamilton, Gait, Ontario, Canada. [The new 

 botany is vitally concerned with these curious plants which 

 systematic botanists are too often inclined to dismiss as mere 

 freaks. The editor of this magazine is gradually assembling 

 a living collection of these and will welcome additions of any- 

 thing unusual. Botanizers who come upon any of these 

 "freaks" are urged to remove them to their gardens for further 

 observation. In cases where the plant is difficult to remove, 

 seeds from the aberrant plant will usually produce the same 

 form. Starting with one of these strange departures from the 



