BOTANICAL GAZETTE. zog 



green spores. When first caught on white paper, the sfjores of mature 

 specimens are a beautiful bright green; they soon change, however, to 

 a dull green. I observe this year the spores of immature specimens to be 

 greenish-yellow with scarcely a preceptible tinge of green. I find this 

 Agaric during the last of August and first week or two of September after 

 continued rains: it grows in open grassy places on rich soil. I would like 

 to ascertain its distribution and would be pleased to receive notes from 

 botanists who may meet with it. I should think it might be found in 

 Kentucky and Indiana. — A. P. Morgan, Dayton, 0. 



Sheds of Erodium cicutarium. — I have thought thai a few facts in 

 regard to Erodiutn cicutarium, the Alfillerilla or Pin weed of California would 

 be of interest to the readers of the Gazette. It is a great pasture plant in 

 California and is v.^ry 0001:11 oa all over the State. Cittle and horses eat it 

 with avidity, and there is so much nutriment in it that even when dried on 

 the ground so as to form a naturally cured hay, they get fat on it. It is 

 to the seeds, however, that I wish to call attention. They are five in 

 number, each wi'h a long hairy awn, all of them united to an upright stylus. 

 The seeds are hard and have sharp points, sticking with great tenacity in'. o 

 every thing they touch. If, when nearly ripe, the seeds are taken and 

 separated from each other and laid upon the hand, or any other place 

 for that matter, the awns will begin to twist. As the drying goes on, the 

 coil gets tighter and tighter until a close coil for about half the length of 

 the awn is formed. The untwisted end sticks out at right angles. Thus 

 the seeds lie during all the long dry summer, ready when the first rains 

 of autumn come to sprout and take root. When they are wet by the rain, 

 the coiled up awn begins to untwist, and it would appear as it the sharp pomt 

 of the seed would be forced in the ground by this action. Such I am not 

 positive is the case, but reasoning from analogy it might be said so. We 

 know that the awns of several species of grasses have this habit of twisting 

 and that they are forced into the ground, and the inference is just that 

 the same result takes place with Erodium. When we consider the number 

 of seeds produced by each plant, and the provision Nature ha": made for 

 its dissemination and preservation, it is no wonder that it is so common all 

 over the State. — J. F. James, Los Angeles, Cat. 



TiLLANDSiAS UNDER CULTIVATION. — During my trip to Florida last winter 

 I collected a large number of these curious air plants. Arriving home about 

 March first, I put them in my green-house where they have done well, and 



