16 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



light. The bacteria concerned are usuahy referred to Bac- 

 terium phosphorcum, Photobacterium ^hosphorescens and 

 a few others. By lining a glass globe with a material in which 

 these bacteria grow and inoculating it with these plants, 

 Dr. Hans Molisch produced a lamp that would last for two 

 weeks and give light enough for reading coarse print. 



Birds as Botanists. — In addition to previous notes in 

 this magazine regarding the tastes of birds for botanical mat- 

 ters, it may be said that the January number of Nature Notes 

 mentions several European birds that exhibit an inclination 

 to ornament their nests. A honey buzzard's nest from Sweden 

 was made entirely of green twigs, and the leaves of oak and 

 black poplar; the rough-legged buzzard has been known to 

 ornament its nest with tufts of wood-rush {Liizula), and the 

 booted eagle uses pine needles and sprays of white poplar. 

 The trait of decorating the nest seems to be found only in 

 the birds of prey — a group in which one would least expect it. 



Wild Hybrids. — The mutation theory of De Vries was 

 given publicity just in time to put a quietus on a great deal of 

 erratic species-making. Not so long ago, when a collector 

 found a plant that differed in the least from its fellows, he 

 hastened to describe it as a new species, with a double name 

 in sounding Latin; now-a-days an unusual plant is likely first 

 to start the quer)'' whether it may not be either a natural hy- 

 brid or a variation of some other plant, one of the so-called 

 "elementary species." This new view is already playing 

 havoc with some of the things that have been passing as good 

 species. In the January Botanical Gazette, Dr. D. T. Mac 

 Dougal presents evidence to show that the Bartram oak, 

 known as Quercus heterophyUa is really a hybrid between 

 Q. rubra and Q. phellos. The same paper gives a list of 

 more than one hundred other reputed hybrids, belonging to 

 no less than twenty-four plant families. No doubt as botan- 



