THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 117 



Color Changes of Flowers. — The fact is well known, 

 at present, that a large number of flowers change color as the 

 blooming season progresses, but the list of flowers that do this 

 is by no means complete and it is desirable that any new in- 

 stances be put on record. We therefore add the silver berry 

 (Elaeagnus argentea) whose four-parted bell-shaped calyces 

 open white but soon turn to a pale yellow. Not only do the 

 flowers turn color as a probable aid to the bees, but they are 

 also very strongly fragrant as might be prophesied of a plant 

 that is nearly related to the sassafras, spice-wood and daphne 

 though not in the same plant family. The silver berry is a 

 plant of our own Northwest and not very well-known to 

 botanists in general but the flowers of the leather-wood (Dirca 

 palustris) a species also closely related to this plant, will give 

 a faint idea of their shape. The silver berry is a medium 

 sized shrub and gets its common name from the silvery scales 

 which cover the fruit and under surface of the leaves. Even 

 the young branches are covered with scales that under the mi- 

 croscope are objects of rare beauty. 



Flies as Spore Distributors. — The flowering plants 

 have evolved many ingenious schemes for getting their seeds 

 distributed by the wind, water, birds, mammals and even man, 

 himself, but little use has been made of the insects for this 

 purpose, probably because there are so few species of insects 

 that are large enough to transport seeds. When it comes to 

 a transference of spores, however, most of the other agencies 

 except the wind are abandoned and the insects almost exclus- 

 ively employed. Pollen grains are really spores and these are 

 the spores that insects are usually engaged in carr}^ing, but 

 there are spores still more minute — the spores of plant and 

 animal diseases and these are also transported by insects, 

 mostly flies. Dr. Cobb recently told the Botanical Society of 

 Washington that after some study of the subject he found the 

 ordinary fly-specks to contain the spores of fifty or sixty dif- 



