102 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



produce magenta specimens has been shown to be true of the 

 common four o'clock and the snapdragon. Possibly other 

 plants with flowers of the appropriate colors may be found to 

 act in the same w'ay. Magenta is one of the commonest of 

 flower colors and apparently easily produced. A still more 

 remarkable case is on record in which two forms of white 

 flowers produce scarlet ones when crossed. 



Buds of the Lii.ac. — It is a common belief that plants 

 put on their buds in spring, the noticeable swelling of these 

 objects in early spring being mistaken for their initial ap- 

 pearance. As a matter of fact, new buds begin to be formed 

 almost as soon as the old ones have opened. By midsummer, 

 the buds of most trees are well developed and the practice of 

 budding is usually carried on then. Other species, of which 

 the common lilac is a conspicuous example, form their next 

 season's buds still earlier. By the end of May the lilac has 

 finished its season of growth, so far as the elongation of the 

 stem and the production of buds is concerned, and the sum- 

 mer seems to be spent waiting for a new spring. 



New Use for Yeast. — The longer we study the physi- 

 ology of the human body, the greater I he wonder becomes 

 that our race has suryiyed to the present. Once we ate what 

 pleased our palate but now \ye are expected to worry oyer 

 carbohydrates, fats, prt)teins, calories, enzymes and what not. 

 Lately it has 1)een discovered that vitamines are the things 

 that keep us on the jol). We may be fat and rosy but scarcely 

 healthy unless we are daily surroumhng a sufiicient amount, 

 or number, of vitamines. Cliildren are said to thri\e best 

 when their diet includes orange, carrot, or tomato juice be- 

 cau.se of the yitamines they contain. It turns out, howeyer, 

 tliat tile liumble yeast cake contains a vitamine (|uite superior 

 to any of the others for warding off disease and thus yeast 

 becomes an almost necessary article of diet. Dr. Leonard K. 



