137 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



The length of the peduncle does not seem to be a very reliable 

 character by which to separate T?illhnn erectum, L., var. declinahtm, 

 Gray and T. ceniuitm, L. The peduncles of the former are some- 

 times very short, while those of the latter increase in length while the 

 flower matures. The purplish anthers of the latter, with the greater 

 separation of the anther cells and more contracted base of the lenf are 

 the characters I use. 



I found last summer a specimen 'of Trilliuin rccurvatum. Beck, 

 with leaves and parts of the flowers in fairs. Barbarea vulgaris, R. 

 Br., seems to be perennial here. — J. T. Davis, M. D. 



Stipules in Onagrace>:. — Prof. Baillon says (Bull, mensucl, 

 Soc. Lin. de Paris, No. 33) tha' in the majority of works on descrip- 

 tive botany, this family is mentioned as characterized by the constant 

 absence of stipules, and in justification of this quotes the classical 

 works of Decaisne, Duchartre, Endlicher and Hooker ; nevertheless, 

 he states that the existence of these organs in this family admits of 

 easy proof, not indeed that they ever occur of large dimensions, for 

 then they could not have escaped detection, but still they are present, 

 more commonly as little subulate tongue-like bodies, acute, often red- 

 colored at the base of the petioles in bi>th opjiosite and alternate- 

 leaved plants. In Hanya they soon turn black and wither off early. 

 In the fuchsia of our gardens little stipules are often present. In 

 Circsea they can also be detected. In the Lopezia of our gardens all 

 the leaves have two very distinct stipules, which, indeed, have been 

 often referred to in botanical works, and it is the same with 

 Halorageaj, though Bentham and Hooker describe them as here 

 absent. — Nature. 



Floridian Ferns. —Next winter I intend to prepare for the 

 Gazette a list ot the Ferns of Florida, with the geographical bounds 

 of each species, whi' h my travels in the peninsula will enable me to do 

 pretty accurately. I e.xpect to have ready in December a second set 

 of Southern Ferns, and a second issue of the first set, mostly collected 

 in different localities. I have just prepared a fourth set of Pteris 

 collected in the heart of Charleston City. It was brought to my 

 attention by Prof. Lewis R. Gibbes, of Charleston College, who says 

 he sent specimens to Prof Eaton, who pronounced it P. serrulafa. 

 Most of the yards in Charleston are surrounded by massive walls, 

 which, crumbling and deeply shaded, invite the growth of all sorts of 

 Cryptogams, and man} Phaenogams. It is many years since Prof. 

 Gibbes first noticed this form, in fact, I think he called my attention 

 to it when there five years ago. I prepared full sets of this and three 

 other Charleston plants, namely, Stillingia sebi/era, Alternanthcra 

 Achyrantha and a Verbena, not menti ned by Chapman, a very 

 peculiar "Vervain." I am now on my way to the Southern AUegha 

 nies and mean to search out a peculiar Abies, which Prof. Gibbes has 

 observed there.— -A. H. Curtiss. 



