THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 67 



that peloria occurs, as a rule, only in the upper flower of the 

 raceme, where there is full chance to expand on every side. 



I once had a funny experience with this condition. I had 

 long known of the phenomenon, as it is mentioned and figured 

 in various text books, for instance in Le Maount and Decaisne, 

 but I had never seen it in nature. One day, walking alone on 

 a street in the residence portion of Providence, I saw, in an 

 open, unoccupied lot, a large bed of common toad-flax. With 

 a bit of prescience I said to myself, " 'Tis now or never, I'll 

 look for peloria.'' To my astonishment, I found nearly every 

 plant, a dozen or more, in full peloria, and from that day to 

 this, over twenty years, I've never seen it again. The phenom- 

 enon here described occurs in our native Linaria Canadensis; 

 in the fox-glove, (Digitalis purpurea) and in other figworts. 

 The whole matter is fully discussed and illustrated in Maxwell 

 T. Master's "Vegetable Teratology," pp. 219 to 239 inclusive; 

 also in the Gray's Structural Botany, Vol. I, page 186 and foot- 

 note. — W. Whitman Bailey, Brozcn University, Providence, 

 R.I. 



The Direction Taken by Roots. — The roots of plants 

 exhibit many evidences of intelligence that seem entirely out 

 of keeping with their structure and position. The first or tap 

 root invariably starts by the shortest route, straight downward 

 while the secondary roots, as if aw^are of the plant food in the 

 upper layers of the soil, spread out at right angles to the tap- 

 root. The tap-root, however, will alter its course when its in- 

 terests prompt, and should there be moisture to the right or left 

 and none below, it will at once turn toward the moisture. The 

 very ability to perceive this difference or to turn at all, would 

 be astonishing if it were not so common. It is of immense ad- 

 vantage to the plant, for without it, the first obstacle met with 

 in the soil would stop further growth of each root. Not all 

 parts of the root possess this ability to turn, but only the parts 

 a short distance back of the root tip. Another illustration of 



