THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 7 



proper position and effect a coarse focal adjustment of the 

 lenses over a glass stage. The stage itself and the illuminat- 

 ing facilities may be a common dissecting microscope with 

 wooden block hand-rests. The necessary lenses (cost- 

 ing $6.50) may afterward be used upon a regular instru- 

 ment, the idea being only to enable a beginner to get an 

 economical start. 

 Ada, Ohio. 



THE SEED-PODS OF TRAILING ARBUTUS. 



UPON a mossy hillside that I know, under the shade of 

 forest oaks, I am sure of finding the earliest blossoms of 

 the trailing arbutus; or, as New Englanders say, the May 

 flower. The plant is an evergreen, and on winter days, when 

 the snow lay thin, its cheerful leaves were pleasant to see amid 

 all the cold brown litter of the woodland floor. Had we then 

 looked closely along the tough stems we should have seen the 

 flower buds already set — silent prophets of these present days 

 of spring, when the blossoms, nursed in frost and ice, have 

 expanded and are lending their quota of fragrance to the 

 sweetness of the air. 



As its name indicates, the trailing arbutus is a lowly 

 plant, seeking no adventures in the upper air, but quite content 

 to pursue its fortunes close to the breast of Mother Earth that 

 bore it ; and so, as its leaves have something of the appearance 

 of another sturdy evergreen of our woods, the laurel, one some- 

 times hears country folk call it "ground laurel." And because 

 it blooms in May and its flowers are usually suffused with 

 pink, the people of some other sections know it as "May-pink." 



In common with most people, who give small thought to 

 flowers after their petals drop, I forgot with annual regularity 

 my arbutus patches under the oaks when their vernal beauty 

 had passed ; until one day of a spring far spent, not many 

 weeks after the bloom was over, my eyes was attracted by a 



