BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 53 



The writer found this plant a few years ago growing on moss-cover- 

 ed rocks, in shallow rapids at Street's Island above Niagara Falls. It 

 doubtless occurs in other localities in this country, but lias probably 

 been confounded with P. pecfiiiatus, from some forms of which it can 

 be distinguished only by the fruit. 



Apparendy a new and somewhat striking variety of P. zoste reef alms, 

 Schum., {P. compressus, Gray's Man., Ed. 5,) is sent by Rev. E. J. 

 Hill, collected in stagnant pools at Ashtabula, Ohio. The leaves are 

 narrower, shorter, and more acute than in the type. They are only 

 3-nerved, being entirely destitute of the many fine lines which are so 

 characteristic of the leaves of this species. 



-Sjiecimens of the above mentioned forms, and of other species, are 

 respectfully solicited. —Thomas MoKOiiC, Ashland, Mass. 



NoTUL/E ExiGU^. — Referring to Mr. Martindale's article on the 

 germination of Orobanche, one may doubt if it follows from the ac- 

 count given that seeds do not require attachment in order to induce 

 germination, or in order to continued growth. It is very doubtful if 

 the seeds in this instance germinated in the pot, since last autumn. 

 More probably they had germinated in the soil beforehand, perhaps 

 had fed on clover roots or on some congenial host, but had not risen 

 above the soil, which takes place only when about to flower. In pot- 

 ting the Geraniums the clover may have been pulled out, but the 

 plant, having accumulated organized material enough to complete its 

 growth, did so in due time and occasion. It is not proved nor prob- 

 able that it could have made its growth independendy in the manner 

 of a green plant. 



On p. 40, last line, "Leen" probably stands for Leer's. 



Miss Reynolds describes Aster CaroUiianus as making a fine display 

 on the Ochlawha river in Florida. Will she inform us whether the 

 base of the long stem is suffrudcose, as Walter and Michaux say. 



About Draha verna and such plants, and whether they are to be 

 termed biennials or annuals, a difficulty comes in, which shows how 

 evanescent this distinction becomes. At the north, where all vegeta- 

 tion is for a long while arrested by winter, it is perhaps needful to con- 

 sider fibrous-rooted plants which germinate late in autumn, and sur- 

 vive the winter to blossom and fruit in earliest spring, as biennials. 

 But the same plants and others like them, when growmg further south, 

 and especially where the winter is moist and mild and the summer 

 hot and dry, regularly germinate in autumn, and flower and seed in 

 early spring. They are winter anmials (see Gray, Structural Botany, 

 new ed. p. 31), plants that run their course in the cool half instead 

 of the warm half of the year. 



Prmgsheim's Chlorophyll investigations, and the hypothetical con- 

 clusions drawn from them are having an unusual popularisation. It 

 may be desirable to keep in mind that the conclusions do not follow 

 from the premises. — A. G. 



