BOTANICAL BULLETIN. 47 



facts in the Botanical Gazettk. I iiave had opportunity to make no observations 

 on other species of the f?enus for similar habits. — E. Hall, Athens, lU. 



CoNOBEA multifida, Bcnth — Some time ago the Editor received for determi- 

 nation a plant from Mr. David Jones, of Kirkvlle, Ind. Without noticing an}-- 

 thing peculiar about it he at once pronounced it Conohea multifida, and returned 

 the name to Mr. Jones. The latter, however, was not satislied and called the Edi- 

 tor's attention to some peculiarities which do not prevent it being C multifida, but 

 which nevertheless are very unusual and contrary to the accepted description. 

 Xearly all the leaves are in 'whorls of threes, instead of being opposite and this pe- 

 culiarity does not run simply through a single specimen, but through a whole 

 patch. Conobea grows very abundantly here, but this arrangement of the leaves 

 has not been noticed. The other peculiarity to which Mr. Jones calls attention 

 has long been noted here and is in fact very constant. The flowers instead of 

 being '•greenish-white," are purple or blue. Such observations ai'e of special inter- 

 est because they cause slight modifications of specific descriptions and thus bring 

 them nearer perfect accuracy. — Ed. 



Opuntia vulgarls and Rafinesquii. — At a recent meeting of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Fiiiladelphia, Mr. Isaac C. Martindale, of Camden, N. J.i 

 made some remarks upon the occurrence of the genus Opuntia in New Jersc}'. In 

 the last edition of Gray's Manual three species are given; 0. vulgaris. Mill., with 

 its old range of "Massachusetts, southward, usually near the coast;" 0. Bafinesquii, 

 Engelm., "Wisconsin to Kentucky and westward;" and the western 0. Missonri- 

 ensis, DC. occurring in the borders of Wisconsin. Mr. Martindale proceeded to 

 state that Dr. Geo. Engelmann in a recent examination of the genus, after com- 

 paring specimens from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 

 heretofore classed as 0. vulgaris, determines them to be identical with 0. Bafines- 

 quii. and states that he has 0. vulgaris only from the "Falls of the Potomac and 

 South Carolina." Last June, Mr. Martindale collected near Haddonfield, N. J., 

 specimens of Opuntin, which he determined to be 0. vulgaris. Dr. Engelmann also 

 jjronounced it to be the true 0. vulgaris. Mr. M. then made some interesting obser- 

 vations on the characters of the two species. He states that 0. vulgaris has a pale 

 green appearance, the flat joints obovate, with small ovate subulate leaves, stout and 

 tapering from a broadish base, mostly less than one-fourth of an inch in length, and 

 appressed to the joint, with a fascicle of minutely barbed bristles, and occasional- 

 ly a spine in their axils; the flowers are sulj^hur yellow, the fruit smoothish, 

 about an inch in length and half an inch in thickness, somewhat ventricose, or 

 largest just above the middle and tapering to the base, with a depression at the 

 top where the flower has fallen oft', from one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch in 

 depth. Opuntia Bafinesquii has rather larger flowers, occasionally with a reddish 

 centre, more numerous petals, the fruit fully one and a half inches in length, with 

 an elongated base, the depression in the top in the specimens examined not so 

 deep as in 0. vulgaris; the older joints have a darker green appearance, the leaves 

 more slender, longer, from one quarter to three eighths of an inch in length, and 

 spreading, and more frequently with the large spine, particularlj' about the top of 

 joint. Mr. M. was contending not so much for the distinctness of the two species, 

 as that if they are distinct the}" are both growing in New Jersej''. — Ed. 



Notes on Acnida. — In the August number of the American Naturalist Dr. 

 Gray has given a very interesting account of the genus Acnida and the confusion 

 of its species. In the second edition of Gray's Manual of Botany we have but the 

 Linn?ean species, A. cannahina, and the section Montelia (under Acnida) of Moquin- 

 Tandon set up as a genus. In the present note Dr. Gray saj^s it was a sad over- 

 sight, "having confounded Moquin's Montelia, which has a small and indehiscent 

 utricle, with his own M. tamariscina, the utricle of which dehisces transversely, 

 and which likewise has far more slender fertile inflorescence." The object of the 



