54 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



in a recent magazine shows how the presence of certain birds 

 in the desert serves to Hmit the spread of the giant cactus 

 {C evens giganteus) because of its structure. Not only do 

 the birds eat great numbers of the seeds of this plant, but the 

 young seedlings from such seeds as escape the birds are 

 greedily picked up because the swollen caulicle or hypocotyl 

 contains considerable water- These seedlings are found in 

 dry seasons after the rains have ceased and form practically 

 the only available supply of water for birds and other small 

 animals. Thus it turns out that a device of the plant looking 

 toward its self-presei*vation in a dry time is one of the most 

 harmful since it leads to the direct undoing of the species. 



Sesquipedalian Plant Names. — It is believed in some 

 unsophisticated quarters that plants are given names to fa- 

 cilitate their use in botanical writing, but the elect know better. 

 Half the enjoyment that some people get out of botany would. 

 be taken away if plants were named strictly with that end in 

 viev/. Along with Byron these people appear inclined to repeat 

 "Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print" and they act 

 upon the motto by attaching as many of their own names as 

 possible to a plant as a sort of monument to themselves for- 

 getful of the proverb that "no man Vvdio needs a monument 

 deserves to have one." These thoughts come to mind upon 

 reading the citation of a large form of the common white 

 water-lily- In full it is Castalia odorata (Aiton) Woodville 

 and wood, variety gigantca (Tricker) Fernald. Here are ten 

 words to express unusual size in a plant, but in our opinion the 

 specimen would have to be a very Goliath, indeed to deserve sc 

 sizeable a name. Analyzing the title a bit, however, we 

 see that of these ten words, the plant has only three for itself, 

 while no less than five eminent scientists have got into the 

 combination. This seems a trifle unfair to the plant. But let 

 no one assume that the instance we have cited is an extreme 



