BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



ger, of Nashville, Tenn. A few ot them may here be put on record. 

 Eore'atiera ligustrina does not (like E. acuminata) blossom in early 

 spring from axils of the preceding year. On the cedar barrens near 

 Nashville, where it abounds, the fragrant flowers develop about the 

 middle of August from the axils of the leaves of that year ; and the 

 fruit ripens at the end of September. That of E. acuiuinata, which 

 blossoms very early, is ripe before the end of May. Tragia macro- 

 carpa. — Both surfaces of the leaves bear stinging hairs. Phlox 

 StcUaria. — This neat and rare species is found at Lavergne, seventeen 

 miles from Nashville, in cedar barrens, growing in beds of sphagnum 

 and other mosses, in moist places. Therniopsis Catvliniana, a most 

 rare species, has been found by Dr. Gottinger on the Harpeth hills, 

 near Nashville. — A. Grav. 



LiTTORELLA AND ScHiz^A IN NovA ScoTiA. — It is singular how a 

 long-overlooked plant, once detected, is then promptly found again 

 and again. Following upon Mr Pringle's announcement of the second 

 discovery of Littordla lacustris (at the northern end of Lake Cham- 

 plain), I have now to announce that Miss Elizabeth G. Knight, of the 

 New York Normal College, found it in August last, growing abund- 

 antly between the stones on the shores of Grand Lake, Nova Scotia, 

 twenty-three miles from Halifax. 



Botanists will be equally interested to know that she also detected, 

 among the rhizomes of Osmuuda regalis, near tlie lake shore, the rare 

 Schiziva pusilla. La Pylaie's specimens in his herbarium at Paris, col 

 lected in Newfoundland about sixty years ago (whit h I have seen), 

 had accredited this plant to New Foundland ; but I believe no one has 

 since found it out of New Jersey until this hap])y discovery by Miss 

 Knight in an adjacent portion of British America. --A. Gray. 



The Coefficient of Contraction. — My attention was lati s 

 drawn to a remarkable case of the difference in length, produced 1>\ 

 unequal "seasoning," in the two sides of an nak post. The ]X'^' 

 referred to is about four inches square; one end is sunk in the groonci 

 and the other projects ten and one half feet above the surface. When 

 placed in position some time ago it was straight and perpendicular; 

 at the present time it leans toward the south, deviating a little over a 

 foot from the perpendicular. The post was "set with the compass," 

 and it is interesting to note that a north and south line lies in the pline 

 of the curve. 



Experiments have given us the coefficients of expansion in differ- 

 ent metals. Why may we not have exj^eriments to determine tiic 

 coefficients of contraction in different woods, i. e., to determine die 

 fractional decrease in length produced in rods of "green" wood, say 

 I meter long and 2 cm. square, by the application of a steady ;■'""] 

 absolutey dry heat for a given length of time ? The knowledge womu 

 be of no practical importance perhaps, but it might bring out unsus- 

 pected correlation between looseness of tissue and amount of contrac- 

 tion. — C. R. Barnes, LaEayctte, hid. 



