98 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



No. 884, Abies <aniibil/'fi, Dongl., it ajipears, must be superseded by Abien mnf/?i/fira, 

 Murray, certainly a very appr.;priate name. Tlie remarks of Mr. Dnfur, quoted under 

 tiiis number, probably relate to a form of A. Douglasii. 



The specitic character of No. 386, Abies nobilis, Lind., seems to be somewhat 

 unsettled. Drs. Hooker and Gray incline to the opinion that ^4. Wf^/^Yis and A. mag- 

 nlfica may be forms of the same species. Further investigation is much needed. 



No. 387, Abies bracteata, Hook. The statement that it grows in Oregon, made on the 

 authority of Gordon, is probably a mistake. It is only positively known from the 

 Santa Lucia Mountains., in Southern California. 



No. 402, Oiipiy.ssiis MarNabiana. Murr. I had received under this name, from the 

 coast range north of San Francisco, specimens of a Cupressus which was said to grow 

 50 to 190 feet higji. I think it is the same which was described as a new species b_y 

 Mr. Begg, of California, and at a meeting of the Philadelphia Academy of Science in 

 1876. My specimens are decided by Prof. Watson to be G. Goveniaiui, Gordon, which 

 he thinks may be only a form of C. macroearpa. Gordon describes both C. Mar- 

 Nftbiiuui and C. Gopfit./ana as only bushes 6 to 10 feet high. Probably one or two more 

 California si)ecimens of Cupressus may yet claim a place in the Catalogue. 



No. 408, Jiinipenix Virginia mi, var., Bermiuliana. This variety according to Dr. 

 Engelmaun is not ./. Bcrmudinna, L., which is a little known species of the Bermudas 

 and other West Indian Islands. 



No. 411, Jiniipcriis "cridentdlis. vai'., Trxmni, is what Dr. Engelmann doubtfully calls 

 var. roii.jiu/niis. To me it appears more like a variety of ,/. Virginia mi, but very possi- 

 bly may be a distinct species 



Junipenis parhi/jihlica, Torr., must be added to the Catalogue. A fine wood section 



of this sjx'cies was received from Dr. Palmer (collected in Arizona) after the Catalogue 



was ))ublishe(l. It is very diflerent in some characters from any other Juniper of our 



country. 



Thriim.r Gurberi. Chap., must be added to the Catalogue. Found in rocky, pine 



woods near Miami, Southern Florida, by Dr. (iarber, in 1877. See Botanical 



Gazkttk, February, 1877. — Gkokge Vasey. 



Cassia NrcTrx-^xs. — This, in these parts common little annual, is now (October 1 5 

 dead — dry plants, covered with seed-pods are all we can find. To-day I came across a 

 patch by the railroad, which the track-hands had mowed otl' early in the season. 

 These had some dry pods from the early flowers, but a new growth came out after the 

 mowing, and these plants were yet green, and flowering profusely. 



Having had occasion to watch this plant very closely last summer on account of 

 directions for my artist, I noticed that wherever fertilization was not accomplished the 

 flowers wholly withered away, as is common in most plants. In these October flowers 

 I And a large number form only a calyx and gj'noecium having but imperfect stamens and 

 no petals. Some produce petals, but these remain closed, and the stigma protrudes 

 like a green pin-head on the mass of orange j^ellow. In many of these cases the an- 

 thers are polleniferous, but the closed petals seem to prevent any contact of i)ol!en 

 with the stigma. I can find no trace of pollen on any of thestigmatic surtaces. In the 

 normal summer flowers the ovarium is quite large before tiie sepals and petals fall. In 

 these they are extremely small when the floral envelopes have disappeared, and re 

 mind one very much of the appearance of cleistogenous flowers of Amphicarpo'a or 

 Impatiens, and like these they evidently go on antl perfect their capsules, but unlike 

 the true cleistogene flower, produce no seeds. ly none of the capsules apparently 

 formed in this way could I find a single .seed. 



The interesting lesson is that while under some circumstances the ovarium no more 

 than the seed can be ])erfected without pollenization ; under others the one maybe 



