BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 67 



direct rays of the sun . In some cases the whole of the pieces of beef disappeared. 

 The small insects seem to live but a short time, although they are touched by only two 

 to four hairs. The substance seems soon to be taken out of the insects. In my opin- 

 ion, it is a true insecitivorous plant." 



Gardiner's M<>iitlily,i)cXi)\wv. This old and ably edited monthly is always full of 

 matter interesting- to all botanists, not only to the horticulturist but the scientitic botan- 

 ist. We can only make mention of one or two notes to be found under the department 

 of " Natural History and Science." An article " On Graft Hybrids " by Thos. Meelian, 

 the Editor, read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, al 

 Buflalo, goes to prove from actual experiment that hybrids may be obtained by graft- 

 ing as well as by seeds. An interesting -extract is made from a letter written bj' Mr. J. 

 G. Lemmon, a California botanist upon the age of the Mammoth Trees {Sequoia yi- 

 yaittea). In it Mr. Lemmon takes sides with Dr. Gray and combats the jiopular notion 

 that these trees are several thousand years old . 



Field and Fureist, OdVohitv . The ' Flora Columbiana " is brought (Xo-wnio Liliaceo:. 

 A pear tree in tlie grounds of tlie Department of Agriculture blossomed, September 8th, 

 for the second time, the first set of leaves and fruit having been destroyed by a small 

 fungus in July. A new locality for Tipularia discolor has been discovered where an 

 abundance ot this rare Orchid can be obtained in tlower. It is common in the leafino- 

 condition, but the tiowers do not appear till long after the leaf has disappeared. The 

 new locality- is on the Virginia shore of the Potomac not far above the Three Sisters. 

 The exact time for collecting it in tiower is the last week in July. 



Proceed i II f/n <if Damwport Academic of JVatirral Sciencex. — We noticed very brietiy 

 in the Gazette for November the volume published by the above society. Some 

 papers bearing on Botany seem to us deserving of a fuller mention than was then 

 given. The papers of special interest to botanists are "Obituary Notice of Prof. John 

 Torrey," l)y Dr. ('. (J. Parri/. " Summer Botanizing in the Wasatch Mountains, L'tah 

 Territorj'," I »y the .same author, and "List of Pluenogamous Plants collected in the 

 vicinity of Daven|)ort," by ./. G. llaupt and ./. ./. Xaf/el. The first paper, read March 

 28th, 187;:i is a beautiful and touching tribute to thtymemory of the " father of American 

 Botanj-" by one who had known him well for twelity-eight years. 



The second jiaper, by the same author, is on<' of special interest and worthy of a 

 separate notice. It is in the form of a letter addressed to Dr. Gray and is a brief 

 sketch of summer l)otanizing in the Wasatch during the .season of IBTo. The author 

 wished espt'cially to note the geographical range of the Coidfenc. from East to West. 

 He selected as camp a local i(jn near the head of Lake Utah, "not far from the high 

 culminating pointof the Wasatch range known as Mount Nebo." " One main object 

 of our trip was to determine definitely the important practical question whether the 

 fruiting of Abies wa.s strictlj' biennial, or, in exceptional cases, annual. I had noted, in 

 1874, the abundant seeding o\ Abies all over this district, extending to the Eastern 

 Rocky Mountains, but now not a single developing cone could be met with in passing 

 through extensive forests of .lbis>< w/^w^o/-, this condition also holding good of other 

 species. The same fact has also been noted by the enteri)rising col lector, J. G. Lemmon in 

 the Sierra Nevada, so that it may be definitely stated, for the benefit of future collectors, 

 that only on ecen years can Abies be relied on tor a seed crop." 



An interesting description is given of the remarkable Spinva coispitoHa which is 

 such an interesting plant that I know readers of the Gazktte will be plea.sedto read a 

 description of it from so able a writer and so acute an observer as Dr. Parry. 



" Among the plants attecting rocky locations, the most eagerly watched and the 

 latest to fiower was the remarkable /Spircea ampitosa, Nutt. Popularly known under 

 the appropriate common name of " trei- moss." it spreads its closely matted foliage 

 over the face of bare rocks, insinuating its taproots, abundantly garnished with terminal 

 fibers, into the narrowest crevices, to which it adheres with a grip almost as tenacious 



