BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 41 



veloping branches in the lower axils of leaves, from roots, &c. In 

 deed, many weeds are almost destitute of arrangements for the dis- 

 tribution of seeds. One of these is the common ragweed, Ambro- 

 sia trifida. In this I noted an occurrence, properly belonging to 

 the study of Natural Philosophy, but which may interest even the 

 botanist. The akenes of this plant have a stout central process, i 

 the length of the seed, surrounded at the base by five slight protu- 

 berances. On a clear morning, when the fields are covered with 

 hoar-frost, go out into the fields in which this plant grew last sum- 

 mer. Wherever there is a seed exposed you find 5 or 6 strands of 

 ice attached to these processes, sometimes separate but oftener in 

 contact with one another, resembling asbestos in the arrangement 

 of the "fibers" of ice. These, after making various contortions, re- 

 sembling locks of hair, reach a length of 11 to 3 inches. During 

 winter season the akenes are mostly half-buried by the earthy mat- 

 ter around them, but in the fall they lie loose on the ground. Now 

 for our application to botany. The seeds being quite heavy gener- 

 ally are carried but a short distance from the stem; but when at- 

 tached to these strands of ice, they are carried away by the winds, 

 rolling over the ground; or the feet of animals in striking the ice 

 — which always rises above the ground, often nearly perpendicular 

 — propel the seed with the ice; and most frequently of all, becoming 

 by this means attached to leaves, light twigs, &c, they are carried 

 by these for short distances, which during the entire winter season, 

 may amount to a considerable distance, for a plant presenting no 

 other facilities. 



Why do not other seeds, as well as our common ragweed, 

 have these curls of ice? Or have they been noticed elsewhere? No 

 doubt this plant offers peculiar facilities in this direction. The 

 seeds present an extraordinary amount of surface by means of these 

 processes, radiation of heat being more advanced here, they offer 

 the first attachment for the dew, which precipitated on the seeds, 

 forms the curls of ice, while at the same time the processes 

 give direction to the strands thus formed, and instead of an irregular 

 mass of ice we have "ice-curls. 1 — Aug. F. Foerste, Dayton, Ohio. 



Depauperate Rudbeckia — An interesting instance of the 

 change which may be effected in the habit and growth of a plant, 

 came to my notice last fall. One day while out walking, I came 

 across a specimen of Rudbeckia hirta, L., which was to me a curi- 

 osity. The leaves were all radical, and the solitary flower was on a 

 veritable scape, leafless and bractless. The leaves and flower were 

 of the typical R. hirta, but instead of the plant being tall and 

 branched as it is usually, it was only two inches high. The next 

 week my brother found another specimen of the same description. 

 This latter was a little taller, being about six inches high to the 

 top of the scape, but all the leaves were radical and the scape was 

 leaflless. This is an interesting instance of the way in which a 



