THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 123 



should not be sent in a letter unless it is registered. Postage 

 stamps usually come safely but are liable to disappear in the 



mails, 



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A few weeks ago we received a call from Mr. W. H. 

 Blanchard, the man who undoubtedly holds the world's record 

 for a black-berrying trip. His trip has little in common with 

 those excursions which many of us have enjoyed to the nearest 

 side-hill pasture for a few hours berry-picking on a summer 

 afternoon. It began in early summer in Florida and continued 

 northward as the flowers opened until the turning point was 

 reached somewhere in British America. Then back went the 

 collector to Oklahoma and followed the zone of ripening 

 berries northward. It is safe to say that if Mr. Blanchard was 

 simply after fruit, he could have got more by staying at home, 

 working for fifty cents a day, and buying what berries he 

 wanted; but he was out for quite another purpose. Having 

 become interested in distinguishing the different forms of 

 blackberries, he started out to see them growing. For several 

 years he studied them in New England and for some distance 

 southward, another season he spent in the province of Quebec, 

 and now he has covered more territory in quest of his speci- 

 mens than anyone ever did before or will do again. But he 

 knows blackberries, now, far better than he ever could by 

 turning over dried brambles in a musty herbarium. What he 

 says about blackberries hereafter will have to be relied upon. 

 Alexander Wilson once made such a journey as this in search 

 of birds, traveling from Maine to the Carolinas mostly on 

 foot, and Pursh, Goldie and many of the older naturalists were 

 accustomed to similar trips. The judgments formed by a man 

 on such expeditions are not likely to go wide of the mark. 



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The new "Gray's Manual" has appeared and there is con- 

 sequently great rejoicing among those who realized that the 



