THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 107 



When mature, a terminal cluster of showy purple flowers 

 rises above the leaves and by- the time the fruits are ripe the 

 plant has ceased to live. Nearly all the large monocarpic 

 plants belong to the monocotyledons, but this last mentioned 

 species is a dicot. 



Pkst X'ersus Pest. — It is with reluctance that we record 

 anything in favor of the English sparrow but even the devil 

 must be given his due, and we note here that one of the spar- 

 row's favorite foods is dandelion seeds. On closelv clipped 

 lawns infested with dandelions he delights to discover the 

 globular heads that have escaped the mower and seldom 

 leaves them until the last seed has disappeared. However, he 

 has begun the work of weed eradication too late.' There will 

 never be enough sparrows to eat up all the dandelion seeds. 



F1.0VVERS That Change Color. — Two lists of flowers 

 that change color with age have appeared in recent numbers 

 of this magazine but bcjth missed the flowering currant 

 (Ribcs aiirciini). This fragrant shrub, so common in culti- 

 vation, has yellow flowers, but the yellow is the color of the 

 sepals. The petals are much paler. After the flowers have 

 been open for a short time, however, the petals become red 

 and thus make a decided contrast with the septals which do 

 not change. 



Ant Gardens. — Everybody has heard much about the 

 sagacity of the ants ; of their f(jndness for honey-dew secured 

 from plant lice, of the habit of some species of keeping slaves, 

 of their cultivating certain grasses for food, of their raising 

 mushrooms in underground caverns upon spawning beds made 

 by the ants, of their methods of storing honey in certain 

 elderly females of the colony, of their association with plants 

 which cater to their wants and of many other things that cor- 

 roborate Solomon's good opinion of them. Fully as wonder- 



