78 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



to do this, it is now stated, is due to the clammy hairs with 

 which they are covered and by means of which they absorb 

 sufficient moisture for their needs from the nightly dew-fall. 

 This explains the adaptability of these plants to sunny places. 

 Some of them seem to actually do better with a minimum of 

 watering. The common garden geranium (Pelargonium). 

 one of the best of plants for a dry and sunny spot, is another 

 that secures a supply of moisture in this way. In this latter 

 plant there are two kinds of hairs, one of the ordinary shape 

 and the other glandular. The material in the glandular hair 

 has a great affinity for water, and this, when taken up passes 

 readily on into the leaf. 



TucKAHOE. — That curious growth called tuckahoe or 

 Indian bread which is occasionally found by those digging in 

 the earth has long been a puzzle to scientists. It frequently 

 reaches the size of a cocoanut or larger and when fresh the in- 

 terior is white, soft and edible and has a sweetish taste. By 

 general consent it has been called a fungus, supposedly allied 

 to the truffles, and has even been given a name as Pachyma 

 cocos. It has recently been discovered, however, that the tuck- 

 ahoe is a sclerotium or resting stage of the mycelium of a 

 species of Polyporus or shelf- fungus by the finding of the 

 fruiting portion. Thus the guesses of the botanist as to its 

 position in the plant world have been verified, though its re- 

 lation to the truffles is not as close as it was thought to be be- 

 fore this latest discovery. 



Flags. — Several different plants are called flags and it is 

 necessary to get at the derivation of the word, flag, to under- 

 stand the reason for it. Upon investigation we find that our 

 word is found with scarcely any change in most of the Teu- 

 tonic languages where it meant to droop or hang loosely. All 

 the plants to which the name properly applies are characterized 



