THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 109 



Less completely hidden than the fig's blossoms, but still 

 concealed from all but the most prying visitors, are the flowers 

 of many plants of the arum tribe — the family to which the 

 Jack-in-the-pulpit, dear to every childish heart, belongs. Here 

 the homely little flowers nestle about the base of a spike which 

 is inclosed within the arching "pulpit," and are entirely shut off 

 from public view. The skunk cabbage, earliest of all our wild 

 bloomers, belongs to the same tribe, and hides its floral chil- 

 dren even more effectively. In late winter, before its rank 

 leaves have unfurled, this plant sets upon the still frozen marsh 

 a mottled, purplish cradle, not unlike a conch shell in shape, 

 within whose twilight depths blooms a small ball of flowers, 

 spreading a breakfast of pollen for winged insects that mar- 

 velously find them in their hiding-places. — C. F. Saunders in 

 Young People. 



Birds as Botanists. — We have several times noted in 

 this magazine instances in which birds of prey have been 

 known to decorate their nests with various fresh plants, and 

 further notes on this point are given in a recent number of 

 Science. Branches of green laurel have been found in the nest 

 of the golden eagle and when these were taken away : others 

 were brought to replace them. The osprey is reported to carry 

 fresh seaweed to its nest and the herring gull adds grass and 

 various other green materials to its nest. Freshly-cut sprays of 

 hemlock have been found in the nest of the red-tailed hawk.The 

 collecting of these materials is regarded as due to a "recrudes- 

 cence of the building instinct" and it is said that no significance 

 attaches to the fact that the materials gathered are fresh and 

 green. It may be pointed out, however, that when the birds 

 are really nest-building they rarely, if ever, collect flowers and 

 leafy things for the work. 



