THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 59 



some given year? I presume this has been tried with fruit- 

 trees. Side by side with the sugar maples are seen, year after 

 year, the exquisite Norway species each season blooming 

 super-abundantly. But all maples as regards their reproduct- 

 ive functions appear to be in a state of flux. Normally poly- 

 gamous, I have known certain trees of red maple and of Nor- 

 way, strictly either staminate or pistillate during many years 

 acquaintance. Are they strivmg for stricter separation or, on 

 the other hand, towards hermaphrodite conditions. — Dr. Wm. 

 Whitman Bailey. 



Spring and early summer are the seasons when everyone 

 that can, goes strolling in the woods and brings home bouquets 

 of wild flowers. As a result, near most of our cities the supply 

 of wild flowers is almost exhausted. In some woods near my 

 home the bloodroot, rue anemone, trillium, columbine and dog- 

 tooth-violet have all disappeared within the last ten years, and 

 the last colony of shooting-star was uprooted in 1899. Many 

 plants can not withstand the repeated loss of flowers and the 

 consequent lack of seeds. Others like the Trillium, are killed 

 because the leaves are all taken with the flowers and the plant 

 can no longer manufacture its necessary food. Some stem- 

 less plants, like the common blue violets, are not at all injured 

 by plucking the flowers, since the leaves are spared and the 

 small cleistogamous flowers later in the season produce most 

 of the seeds. The larger and coarser plants of summer and 

 autumn are also less liable to injury from careless flower- 

 gatherers. Let us, as lovers of plants, use due discretion in 

 gathering flowers, so that there may be a perpetual supply of 

 them for others to enjoy as well as ourselves. 



