50 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



Degeneracy of plants is not a process of one season bat 

 rather a result of countless generations of change and ad- 

 justment to environment. As we may read in the histon,' of 

 a nation the general character of the human beings of which 

 it is composed, so from the foliage and blossoms of plant 

 families we may read the stor}- of their struggle for existence. 

 In their leaves, roots and blossoms the keys of their profes- 

 sions, progressions, or degeneration are to be found. 



Normal plant life abounds in green coloring matter {chlor- 

 ophyll), which pervades the cellular tissues of both stem and 

 leaves. This substance aids the plant in forming its nourish- 

 ment from the water taken form the soil, and the carbon- 

 dioxide in the air. A plant which has become either a para- 

 site, or saproph}-te. takes its nourishment either from living 

 things or from dead products in the soil, and therefore has 

 no use for green leaves which soon degenerate to small bracts. 

 True parasitic plants, live upon the stems or roots of other 

 liznng plants ; while the saproph}-tes, take their food from the 

 organic material in the soil. Some plants may be in a degree 

 both parasitic and saprophytic. 



A Western species of the Monotropaceae is remarkable for 

 the deep rose-carmine color of its fleshy spike of flowers. It 

 is locally known as the snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea). The 

 spike is often over fifteen inches high, and one and a half 

 inches thick. The stem is clothed with fleshy scales, the upper 

 ones passing into strap-like bracts. The flowers van,- from 

 sixty to a hundred growing in circles around the stem — five or 

 six in each circle. The blossoms when fresh are erect upon 

 fleshy pedicels one and a half inches long. 



Sarcodes, unlike Mouotropa. does not turn black on being 

 bruised ; and when dried still retains the carmine coloring. A 

 few specimens of this strange plant were collected by Mrs. 

 Lewers in Washoe \'alley. near Frankfort. Xevada, about 

 May 10th, and came safely to me. They delighted the Nature 



