154 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



Miss Reynolds had the good fortune to make another acquisition 

 in the same district in a species of CaUisia, which, if not identical, is 

 very near a Cuban Species, the C. meiandra of Charles Wright (hitr 

 No. 3728). The genus is nearly allied to Tradescantia. 



Two other notes of rare plants may be worth making. Dr. Melli- 

 champ has i'ound Vincetoxicum scoparium^ Gray, (Cynoctoniwmf Chap- 

 man) at Bluffton, South Carolinia, and Mr. Shriver has sent specimens 

 of Adiantu.m Capillus- Veneris., L., from the banks of New River, 

 Wythe County, Virginia. — Wm. M. Canby. 



Erratum. — In Mr. Canby's article on Baptisia in the April No. of 

 the Gazette, page 131, line 14 from bottom, for "septa'' read sutures. 



The Yellow Snow — Pollen Grains or Algjs? — A microscopic ex- 

 amination of a portion of the yellow matter, which appeared in the 

 streets of Easton after the snow storm of Monday morning, March 

 17th. proves it to consist of pollen grains, united at first, but separa- 

 ted when dry, or when again wetted. They correspond in every re- 

 spect with those of the long-leaved or yellow pines of the Southern 

 States (PlriKs australls., Michx.), with which they have been carefully 

 compared. Tliis pine, though very abundant in the low^lands of North 

 ( 'arolina, does not extend north into Virginia. The specimen in flow- 

 er, which furnished the pollen for comparison, was gathered near 

 Wilmington, N. C, in the month of March. Currents of air have, no 

 doubt, brouglit from that distant region enough of the pollen to pow- 

 der lightly a considerable district in Northeastern Pennsylvania, 

 Thus far, it has been reported as seen in the Counties of Berks, Le- 

 Iiigh, Carbon and Northampton. I may state also that I have found 

 ihe water in rain-hogsheads, in Central Pennsylvania, covered with 

 pollen of pine trees, brought by the winds from the neighboring 

 mountains at the season of their flowering, in the month of May. — 



Thomas C. Porter, Ea.'^fmi, I'd. 



A Visit to the Shell-Islands of Florida, by A. H. Curtiss. — Pa- 

 per III. — Few who have visited Florida know even the location of 

 the Sister Islands ; many who reside within sight of them know not 

 their names. Fishermen occasionally resort to them but they pre- 

 sent little of interest to any one but a botanist, and to him a brief 

 exploration is sufficiently satisfactory, especially as an ever sounding 

 voice seems constantly calling him to the sea-shore. The ocean is in 

 plain sight, yet not easily reached, for there intervenes a vast ex- 

 panse of marsh and the channel through it is extremely tortuous and 

 difficult to navigate. Once in August the writer made a journey of 



