104 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



them penetrating the ground around it, thus aiding the leaves 

 in the short season durinng which they could work to lay up 

 material for the flowers and fruit which come like a miracle 

 on the brown and sear hills of summer time in Southern Cali- 

 fornia. 



The Spanish Californians use this bulb for soap, and as 

 a hair tonic. It is also said to be an excellent remedy for 

 poison oak, but aside from these useful properties the soap root 

 cannot fail to be of greatest interest to every plant lover be- 

 cause of its delicate blossoms and strange, rapid growth. 



Orange, Cal. 



THE PINE BARRENS OF LAKEHURST, N. J. 



BY PAULINE KAUFMAN. 



A trip to Lakehurst, N. J., took us, my sister and self, from 

 •**• North Ashbury Park to Redbank, where after a long 

 delay, we were able to get another train, going over practically 

 the same ground, though further back in the country, to reach 

 our goal. The name Lakehurst, is more than usually justified for 

 there are small lakes all over, and the pine woods are also there. 

 Arrived at the station, we were met by our guide, and followed 

 the railroad track some distance, keeping parallel with a little 

 channel alongside, when the joy of finding the first white Sah- 

 hatia, repaid us amply for the trials and tribulations of the 

 road. These plants, two feet high, have opposite branches, the 

 upper ones forming a flat top. The deeply cleft flowers are 

 pure white, throughout, there being no trace of the center 

 coloring found in our ordinary pink Sabbatias. All summer 

 I had planned to go to Tom's River, where I had been told, 

 this Sabhatia panicidata could be found, and here there was 

 quite a good deal of it. Of Lophiola aurea, the gray wooly 

 cymes were left, and just one flower showed us the pretty 

 orange color. The perianth is six-cleft, and the whole plant is 

 soft and wooley. Lacnanthcs tinctoria so new to me that I 



