THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 29 



Rarity of Conopholis. — I notice with interest your 

 comment in American Botanist regarding the rarity of 

 Conopholis. Although it is not one of our common plants in 

 Western Pennsylvania yet I haye seen many specimens. A few- 

 years ago I collected some fine specimens on the roots of the 

 black oak on a thinly wooded hill in the outskirts of Pitts- 

 burgh. This particular specimen had probably eight or nine 

 fine sturdy stems and had caused a woody gall about as large 

 as one's fist on a root, perhaps, half an inch in diameter. 

 Around this same tree there were several other smaller speci- 

 mens, and I have collected the species in several parts of 

 Western Pennsylvania, always in rather elevated, poor, and 

 likely quite acid soils with black or red or chestnut-oak 

 woods. — O. B. Jennings, Carnagie Museum, Pittsburgh. 



Flovver-Buds Two Ykars Old. — According to a writer 

 in American Forestry, the empress tree {Paidonia imperialis) 

 produces its flower-buds two years before they open. It is 

 stated that "It requires two years for the blooming period; 

 that is, the flower-buds require two years to make." Although 

 we are too far away from specimens of Pawlonia, to investi- 

 gate the matter, we feel sure that there must be some error in 

 this statement. The tree may blossom only every other year, 

 though the trees we once knew were annually covered with 

 blossoms. Along the Atlantic coast the empress tree is hardy 

 as far north as Massachusetts and nearly always blooms in 

 the New York parks. Someone who is closer to the trees 

 than we are might settle the question. 



Cash for Sfeds. — It is not generally known that the 

 nurserymen depend upon the seeds of wild plants for many 

 of the specimens that they grow. They are too busy growing 

 plants, however, to attend to the collection of seeds themselves 

 and in consecjuence are nearly always in the market for vari- 

 ous kinds. The seeds of even common species are in demand. 

 For instance, we have recently had requests for somebody wlio 



