THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 101 



although Gray calls them edible. They consist mostly of one 

 large seed surrounded by a dry greenish powder and a rather 

 tough light green skin. They are one of the sweetest flowered 

 plants we have here and would be useful for that reason if for 

 no other. Bunch-berries are common under trees in coulees 

 as is also the dwarf raspberry (Rubus triiiorns) but neither 

 are very valuable as a food. 



South and east of here there are large tracts of open 

 prairie where there are probably no berries of any kind while 

 farther west toward the mountains there may be more or dif- 

 ferent species, but this locality, along Battle River, probably 

 has most of the species found in this part of Alberta. 



Flagstaff, Alberta. 



CLEISTOGAMY IN THE VIOLET 



CLEISTOGAMY, or close-pollination, in unopened blos- 

 soms, is a curious illustration of Nature's occasional par- 

 simony. The lavish hand with which she is wont to distribute 

 pollen, amounting to over 3,000,000 grains to the flower in 

 some wind-fertilized plants, is withdrawn in the case of the 

 closed violet blossom, which she restricts to a paltry 100 grains. 

 It is recorded that some years ago, before the great pine area 

 of North Carolina had been denuded of its forests, cities as far 

 away as Reading, Pa,, occasionally had their streets covered 

 with a layer of fine, yellowish powder, and the uninitiated de- 

 clared that it had rained sulphur during the night. But it was 

 the golden rain of pine pollen from the far-away forests of 

 North Carolina. Pine pollen has even been known to form a 

 yellow scum on the ocean far at sea, and whales have feasted 

 on it. Even the humble rag weed has distinguished itself by 

 shedding its clouds of minute pollen dust in such quantity that 

 it has penetrated into the heart of great cities and invaded of- 

 fice buildings, much to the discomfiture of susceptibles to hay 



