144 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



vironment until some change in the earth itself terminated 

 their existence. Disease and death due to it, appear to be 

 mere modern adaptations. 



Water Cress Native. — Rev J. M. Bates writes that in 

 his opinion the water cress {Nasturtium offcinalc) is in no 

 need of Americanization. He found it filling the streams in 

 obsecure counties of Nebraska thirty years ago and says that 

 "Unless we have the careful reports of botanists of the time 

 of Lewis and Clark we cannot ])rove or disprove any such 

 contention." Additional evidence that the plant may be native 

 came to light last summer when the writer of this j^aragraph 

 found the plant choking up the rills from springs in the Tuba 

 Oasis in Northern Arizona. With the exception of two or 

 three Hopi pueblos there is no town of any kind in any direc- 

 tion for nearly a hundred miles and practically no water at 

 all since the entire region is a desert of great aridity. How 

 the plants were transported to such an out-of-the-way spot is 

 something of a mystery. They may have been carried thither 

 by the Mormons who used to roam the region, but it is not 

 likely, or at least the chances are as good for its being a 

 native. 



New Form ok Crab. — While liousewives in Eastern 

 yXmerica are making jelly and preserves of the hard, sour, but 

 fragrant fruits of the wild cral). their sisters in the Mississippi 

 valley often find the srune occupation less tiresome because 

 they can secure tlic larger fruits of another species. This 

 latter plant is known as llic biwa crab { Tynis locnsis). There 

 seems to be two forms of the wild crab in the East. From 

 Ontario .south to the Ohio vallev or beyond is found a species 

 known -.is Pyrus (iiialus) f/lauccsccns. In the Gulf States 

 is another s[)ecies, Pyrus, or Mains, coronaria which overlaps 

 the range of the first species on the north. The large fruited 

 species is found in the Mississippi valley but may spread ea.st- 



