THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 81 



the new buds can be plainly seen as soon as they are disem- 

 barrassed of the old; but it is true of all that they thrust the 

 old ones away by the development of their own more vigorous 

 life and that the storms of autumn are no more than their 

 auxiliaries. The failing of the leaf, in spite of all its acces- 

 sories of ruin and decay is the first event of spring. 



The more deeply the life of the English season is studied 

 the more plainly it is seen that there is no dead low-water 

 mark between one year and the next. In spring and summer, 

 the tide may seem, indeed, to be strongly rising and in autumn 

 and winter to ebb, but the forces of growth and decay are 

 always at work side by side. Long before the hazel covers 

 of April are breaking into leaf the snowdrops among their 

 mossy roots have already passed their own time of flowering 

 and have sunk once more into rest. It is the leafing of the 

 beeches and ashes in the bluebell woods that cuts off the 

 vivifying sunlight from the rich flower carpet beneath their 

 boughs and thus ends spring for the flowers at the time the 

 leaves aloft first feel it. So in like manner the visible decay 

 of autumn is underlain on all sides by processes of reconstruc- 

 tion and growth. — London Times. 



Aromatic Liverworts. — Fragrance in plants is of very 

 wide occurrence. The mints are especially noted for this qual- 

 ity but many other flowering plants possess it. Among the 

 ferns a large number possess fragrance as may be inferred 

 from the number of specific names indicating this quality. 

 Plants lower in the scale of life than the ferns are seldom 

 fragrant. An exception to this is found in a not uncommon 

 liverwort, Conocephalum conicum, whose bruised fronds have 

 a strong odor which has been likened to bergamot or turpen- 

 tine according to the person making the comparison. 



