THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 119 



in-the-pulpit or Indian turnip. The European plant in its 

 natural state is quite acrid and reputed to be poisonous, but 

 yields the sago upon being baked. The acrid properties of our 

 own plant are well known but these disappear when the corm 

 is dried and doubtless it, too, would yield sago on proper 

 manipulation. A man lost in the woods might sustain Ife for 

 a long time if he but knew of the sources everywhere about 

 him upon which he could draw. 



Use of Cactus Plant Ribs. — Everybody knows that 



the cylindrical and spherical species of cactus are usually 

 strongly ribbed, but the reason for these ribs is not so well un- 

 derstood. If one should make a cross-section of one of these 

 plants he would find the fibro-vascular bundles, which distri- 

 bute the absorbed moisture to the plant, to be situated it a 

 circle near the center of the stem. Between these bundles and 

 the outside of the stem is the region in which the surplus mois- 

 ture is stored. The ribs on the cactus plant act somewhat on 

 the plan of an accordeon or the bellows of a camera, expand- 

 ing or contracting with the supply of moisture. This enables 

 each plant to take up a large supply of water under favorable 

 circumstances. If the stem was a mere cylinder the thick and 

 tough outer skin would only allow of storing a definite 

 amount, but with a ribbed stem the absorption of water can 

 go on indefinitely. 



Family Names. — In certain recent books dominated by 

 a purely local nomenclature we have seen some of the familiar 

 family names displaced by new ones. Thus Poaceae and Pin- 

 aceae, are used for the grass and pine families respectively. 

 Leguminosae is replaced by Fabaceae, Cruciferae by Bras- 

 sicaceae and so on. These do not appear to be likely to come 

 into general usage, for which we may be thankful, but we may 

 be still more thankful that others with which we are threatened 

 do not seem to have a chance of gaining place. If they did we 



