THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 107 



peonies do not show their capabihties the first time thev blos- 

 som. The flowers may be nearly single the first season and 

 steadily increase in size and number of petals for several suc- 

 cessive years. The double pink daisy {Pyrctlinnit liyhridum) , 

 .often requires four or five years to show the double feature. 

 At the first blooming the flower heads may exhibit the ''single" 

 condition and the novice finding no double flowers among 

 them may hastily conclude that his is inferior stock, but in a 

 few years doubling may begin. All this shows that some 

 change in the protoplasm must take place with age. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, growing old may be assumed to be due to changes 

 in the protoplasm of the individual. Seekers for an elixor of 

 life might find these facts worth investigation. 



BoBOi^iNKS Under the Ban — When the bobolink for- 

 sakes our northern meadows and returns to the South-eastern 

 United States for the winter, he is known as the rice-bird or 

 reed-bird. One of these names has been earned through his 

 fondness for the ripening grains of rice. To protect the rice 

 crop, the Secretary of Agriculture has authorized the shooting 

 of the birds. There are certain restrictions placed on the shoot- 

 ing, however. The birds must not be shot before sunrise nor 

 after sunset and they may be shot only at certain times of the 

 year. One would think that if the object is to protect the rice 

 crop, the more bobolinks shot, the better, and that there should 

 be no restrictions as to when and how the birds were killed. 

 Since the shooting is hedged round with restrictions it is ap- 

 parent to us that the protection of the rice crop is quite second- 

 ary to providing gentlemenly sport for the pot hunters. 



Rarity of Conophoeis — In various issues of this maga- 

 zine for 1912 and 1913, writers commented on the extreme 

 rarity of the broomrape (Conopholis Americana). One inde- 

 fatiguable collector reported that he had never seen it growing 

 in fifty years, collecting in regions where it was supposed to 

 grow, and all agreed that it should be marked rare in the books. 



