\I 



BOTANICm2^^(^^2:ETTE. 



V ol. 2. JANUARY, 1877. JVq, 3. 



A NEW CuscuTA, new at least to North America, comes now from Califoruia. A 

 great wanderer is tliis C. corymbosa, wliicli nearly 40 years ago stirred up the botanists 

 of Europe, and the agriculturists not less. This interesting plant has quite a little his- 

 tory of its own. At the period indicated, between 183U and 184;j, an unknown Vuscuta 

 nuide its appearance almost simultaneously in diiferent parts of western Europe, and, 

 singularly enough, alwa3rs on Lucerne fields. In Germany it was described as C. 

 snamolens, G ■ Ilassiaca^ G. didp/uma, and Enrjelmaii.nia migrans, until Choisy, in DC. 

 Prod., recognizing its American origin, tooiv it for G. covymhona, R. & P. In my mono- 

 graph of Cuscuta, 1859, I established the identity of the immigrant with the South 

 American G. raeemosa, Mart., which had been introduced into Europe with the much 

 vaunted Chilian Alfalfa, in reality the old established European fodder plant, the 

 Lumrne, and which proved very destructive to its nurse-plant. After 10 or 15 years the 

 energetic measures of the farmers, together with wet and cool summers, in which the 

 seeds did not mature, seem to have eradicated the plant entirely, and as far as I am in- 

 formed, it has not been heard of again in Europe. But now, lo and behold, our 

 wanderer makes its appearance in northern Califoruia, and, precisely as before in 

 Europe, in Alfalfa fields, "proving very injurious." It has been, without doubt, here 

 also imported from Chili. • 



Rev. E. L. Greene, who has found so many new native plants in the Shasta Valley, 

 sends also this troublesome newcomer. How long it has been there or whether it has 

 appeared in other parts of California, where under the well-sounding name of Alfalfa 

 the Lucerne is frequently cultivated, is as yet unknown, nor whether it will establish 

 itself permanently. It may be xMeW to direct the attention of the farmers, who cultivate 

 Alfalfa, to this dangerous enemy and to urge them to destroy any dodder which may 

 show itself in their fields, before it can spread or mature seeds. G. racemosa, Mart., 

 belongs like our common G. Groiinvii to the section Glisto gmmmica, characterized by 

 two styles of unequal length tipped with capitate stigmas and a not-opeuing (baccate) 

 capsule. Ovary and capsule are thickened towards the apex and somewhat pointed; 

 inrtorcscence loosely paniculated with longish pedicels; fiowers 13^ — 2 lines long, of 

 thin texture, tube of corolla deeply campanulate, widening upwards, spreading lobes 

 inflexed at the acute tip ; scales nearly the length of the tube ; capsule commonl}' en- 

 veloped by the corolla. 



The variety, Ghiliiuia, Eng. Cusc. p. 505, to which this form belongs, has larger and 

 ' more delicate flowers than tlie original Brazilian type. — G. Engelmann. 



The Oldest Living Botanist. — The oldest living botanist is probably the 

 Swede Elias Fries, born in 17!J4, and this eminent man is still active. 



He is a ])rofouutl philosophical Botanist, the basis of whose systematic ar- 

 rangement of the Fungi is still followed; and the Lichenological system presented in 

 \nii Lichenogriiphia Europmi lt(foriiiata,\)\\\)\\A\vAm 1831, is still, with such motlifica- 

 tious as the advance of knowledge requires, the best that has been prepared, and is not 

 likely lo be superseded. The iatroductory remarks should be studied by all who take 

 up this branch of botanj^, and the descriptions have not been surpassed. Fries's bo- 

 tanical publications are numerous, the most important of them being devoted to the 

 Fungi and Lichens. In 1872 he commenced the publication of an illustrated work on 

 Fungi, several fascicles of which have been published. — W. 



