BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 227 



Viscidity as a Seed-distributor. — On a recent short botanical ex- 

 cursion with a thirteen year old son, he called ray attention to a 

 bunch of dried sterns of Cerastium nutans which by his pocket lens he 

 had discovered to be "covered with small lice sticking to the glands." 

 These proved to be seeds, which, adhering in this way to the sticky 

 stems, were thus blown to long distances, and widely distributed ! 

 We have had suggestions that viscid glands are for the purpose of 

 absorbing nitrogenous matter, — for obstructing the advance of un- 

 welcome guests, — possibly for some other purposes, — but I have 

 never heard of the seed-distribution. We know that when a dead 

 cat is placed at the root of a grape vine, the plant is often invigorated 

 thereby, but we do not believe that cats were especially designed for 

 grape vine roots, or the roots especially adapted for feeding on dead 

 cats, though indirectly this may be so, and I fancy much of what we 

 hear about '^arrangements'" in plant structure or behavior, amounts 

 to but little more. Still it is always a gain to know the fact, what- 

 ever it may be, hence I send you this note — T. Meehan. 



Notes fro.^i St. Augustine, Fla. — I suppose that as I write, Oct. 

 21st, the collecting season is nearly over for northern botanists, while 

 here the wild flowers are blooming in great profusion, and will con- 

 tinue to do so for two or three weeks longer. In ordinary seasons 

 the last two weeks of November and the whole of December afford 

 very little of botanical interest in this section. Nature seems to 

 take a short, rest, and January begins the season again with Viola 

 lanceolata, V. cucuUata, Oldenlandia rotundifolia, and perhaps Plngui- 

 cula lutea, P. pumila and P. elatior. 



Septem^^er and October of this year have been terribly rainy 

 months, making collecting almost impossible. However, four or five 

 days just spent at a "settlement"" a few miles from St. Augustine, 

 have yielded good returns. We passed one day, notwithstanding 

 frequent showers, in voyaging over the pine-barrens in a Florida cart, 

 going wherever there seemed to be anything worth gathering. The 

 wet season had caused acres of pine-barren land to bloom with Bige- 

 lovia nudata, DC, while here and there the milk-white corymbs and 

 blossom-stems of Cacalia ovafa, Walt, made that pretty flower very 

 conspicuous. I saw three or four small specimens of Ilydrolca corijm- 

 hosa, Ell. although it is now late in the season for it. It is very beau- 

 tiful with its bright blue corolla and filaments and golden anthers. 

 There were immense, partially submerged patches of the aromatic 

 Herpestis amplexicaulis, Pursh., the bright blue of its blossoms nearly 



