no THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



came up, large and plentiful, as it is the custom with violets. 

 But to my surprise the leaves underwent a gradual change. 

 First, they became cut-lobed at their lower ends, then the cuts 

 and lobes increased in size, gradually, till the leaves assumed 

 the shape of those of viola palmata. Also they became smooth. 

 If I did not know that the plant was originally ovata, I wouUd 

 have collected it now as V. palmata, if I had found it wild. — 

 /. C. BuchJieister, Nezv York. 



Fruiting of Trailing Arbutus. — Further evidence re- 

 garding the fruiting of Epigae repcns is furnished by Miss 

 Mary E. Hatch, Cambridge, Mass., who writes : 



"I have examined three patches of Epigaea repens and 

 find that in one, and the smaller patch too, the plants had 

 formed fruit copiously. This patch I feel sure is known to 

 no one else. The other two were both in a scrub-pine grove 

 and may have been disturbed. One of these had no fruit and 

 the other only a few." It would be interesting to examine 

 the flowers in these colonies next spring and see if those in 

 which fruit is scarce are really incapable of producing seed. 



Cleistogamous Flowers. — Nearly 650 species belonging 

 to 62 families of flowering plants are now known to produce 

 cleistosramous flowers. 



^fe' 



The Loco-weed. — For at least sixty years, owners of live 

 stock in the western half of the United States have annually 

 suffered considerable loss from a disease called "loco." The 

 cause of the disease has been attributed to various plants, us- 

 ually species of Aragalliis and Astragalus but all efforts to 

 isolate a poisonous substance from these have ended in failure. 

 It was found however, that at least some of the plants were 

 capable of causing the loco disease, and for some time past A. 

 C. Crawford of the U. S. Department of Agriculture has been 



