BOTANICAL BULLETIN. 



have inquired for twenty years for tlie familiar eastern Erechthites hieracifolius, 

 but no botanist or farmer had ever seen it in this State. Two years ago Dr. Lap- 

 ham asserted tliat it had never reached Wisconsin. A weeli afterwards I discov- 

 ered it for the first time in a door-yard adjoining my office. A few days later I 

 found it in considerable abundance along tlie Wisconsin Central E. R., north of 

 Steven's Point. 



A friend just informs me that he has found the Lobelia syphiUtica perfectly 

 white, growing with the blue. Is this a new departure?" 



Some Variations. — There are some strange varieties of a few plants growing 

 in this vicinity, which I thought might prove to be interesting to the readers of 

 tlie Botanical Bulletin. Caltha palustris, L., found (lowering in meadows from 

 the latter part of March to May, varies in its flower considerably. The sepals, not 

 unfrecjuently, instead of numbering 5 to 9, as descriptions in boolvS state, become 

 as numerous as 13 to 15 and less than half as wide as usual and spatulate in form. 

 1 collected a remarkable flower of this phint, several years ago, in Avhich the 

 sepals, 13 in number, are disposed in two whorls. The lower whorl is about half 

 an inch beneatli the upper, consists of 10 sepals, spatulate, generally entire, a few 

 triply crenate at tlieir somewhat widened apex, and the venation closer than usual. 

 The apex of the peduncle, bearing tlie stamens and pistils, is surrounded by two 

 small and one large sepal. Probablj^ this form is merely a monstrosity, yet it is 

 interesting to note the tendency in this plant to produce a greatei- number of sepals 

 than is noted in botanical works. 1 liave not collected any of the above forms in 

 seed, tlierefore am unable to state whetlier further variation might be found in the 

 follicles and seed. 



Camptosurus rhizophyllus. Link., is one of our most interesting and abundant 

 ferns, growing luxuriantly on damp sliaded limestone rocks. The auricles of the 

 fronds vary in shape considerably; in some forms almost absent, with scarcely an 

 enlarged base, to largely auricled and hastate, the slender prolongation growing 

 from the latter forms often rooting and producing new plants. The frond is some- 

 times found bifid, the divisions spreading at about half its length, eacli portion 

 bearing a midrib and terminating in a very slender apex. I have found some 

 plants bearing sori, in whicii the frond is remarkablj^ short, oblong, obtuse, widen- 

 ing at the base into obtuse auricles. Again I l-ave another form in whicli the au- 

 ricles are so deeply cleft from the main frond, as nearly to form three distinct di- 

 visions. — E. A. Rau, Bethlehem, Pa. 



Botany of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota.— 



Tlie Regents of tlie University of Minnesota have talien action ordering the com- 

 mencement of a tliorougli and systematic examination of the flora of the State. To 

 facilitate such an examination Prof. N. H. Winchell, chief of the Survey, has is- 

 sued a circular letter to the botanists of the state, giving them directions how to 

 proceed to work systematically. As Minnesota is beyond tlie range of ordinary 

 text books, tlie books necessary for working up the flora are expensive and some 

 of them hard to get, and of course by centralizing all tlieir forces at the Univer- 

 sity, a mucli greater and more satisfactory kind of work can be done. Such a sur- 

 vey ought to be ordered in every State. Tliere are geological surveys enough to 

 work up eveiy corner of every state, but botanical observations on any part of a 

 state must creep in by special favor. Our public spirited legislators, avIio can see 

 the point of voting appropriations for opening up tlieir coal fields and iron regions, 

 have not been educated sufficiently yet to know the economic value of a good bo- 

 tanical survey or that a geological survey cannot be complete without it. But 

 botanists ivill work whetlier they have appropriations or not, and though it is 

 necessarily a slower process, the work will be done eventually, and may be all the 

 better for its slow and careful progress. — Ed. 



Recent Periodicals. — Americmi Journal of Science and Arts, September. A pa- 



