BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 99 



Post Office Department, 

 Office of First Ass't Postmaster General, 

 Washington D. C, June 24, 1882. 

 Lester F. Ward, Esq., National Museum, Washington, D. C.: 



Sj r — Your communication of the 21st inst., addressed to the 

 Postmaster General, has been referred to this office for reply. 



The labels submitted by you, so far as they contain simply the 

 nam > of the plant, and as necessary to fix that name, the name of 

 the person making the classification, adding, as part of the name, 

 the variety, and the name of the person classifying, will be held to 

 be within the language of the Statutes. But it is impossible, by 

 any fair construction, to authorize a statement of the kind of soil 

 in wlrch the plant grows, or the locality from which it comes, or 

 the date at which the plant is obtained, or the date at which it 

 flowers, or yields fruit. 



All these descriptive matters might be placed upon the label, 

 by the use of a gelatine pad, thus making a reproduction of the mat- 

 ter; or, by the use of a hand stamp. You are respectfully referred 

 to Rulings 319 and 320, January Postal Guide, 1882, page 719, a 

 copy ot with guide Avill be sent to you, through the Post Office. 

 " Your labels and communication are respectfully returned. 



Very respectfully, 



E. C. Fowler, 

 For First Assistant Postmaster General. 



Decumaria barbara— On May 29th of this year, in company 

 with Dr. Frank Baker, I paid a brief visit to the Dismal Swamp of 

 Virginia. My principal object was to find if possible that hand- 

 some vine, Decumaria barbara, L., which I had seen in the swamp 

 in 1876, when, in company with Prof. Chickering and Mr. Morong, 

 I had enjoyed a three days' sojourn in that wilderness of amber-col- 

 ored waters. 



As on that occasion the plant was not seen till we had pene- 

 trated far into the swamp on what is known as the Jericho Canal 

 to near the open lake, and as on the present one, starting from 

 Bowers Hill Station on the Seaboard & Roanoake R. R., we could 

 only find ditches that would lead us in a distance of about two 

 miles, we were by no means sanguine of success. But successful 

 we were, and found many large and beautiful vines climbing the 

 great gum trees. They were in full bloom and the problem was to 

 reach the flowers. 



As your readers probably know, this vine climbs by means 

 of fine rootlets, after the manner of Eh its Toxicodendron, which it 

 much resembles in many other respects, and with which it vies in 

 the Dismal Swamp for the posession of the finest supports. To 

 climb to the lowest flowering branches was impossible, and after 

 reaching the verge of despair, the thought struck us of severing a 



