62 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



producing the characters of the divers parts of the plants and of their 

 variations." Prof. Schimper's later years were devoted to the study 

 of vegetable paleontology. 



The Botanic Garden at Cambridge is no longer a local, but a 

 national concern. The eyes and thoughts of the botanists of this 

 country are directed to it as naturally as are those of English, in fact 

 the world's, botanists, to the Kew Gardens. There we find the 

 largest herbarium, the largest library, the largest collection of living 

 plants, indigenous to our own country, to be found anywhere on the 

 continent. But still we can have more, and what is more to the 

 point, we are going to have it. The present director, Prof. George 

 L. Goodale, is a man of indomitable energy, and his heart is in this 

 work of developing the Garden. He can keep more irons in the 

 fire at once, and have them all hot, than any gentleman of our ac- 

 quaintance. Of course improvement means money, and money is 

 what botanists are not generally blessed with, and hence we will not 

 make a financial appeal to them, although about $80,000 would be 

 very acceptable. But botanists, more than any other persons, know 

 good plants and where they can be procured, and if the botanists of 

 this country would make it a point to send good living roots or seeds 

 of their local rarities to Cambridge, they would be doing themselves 

 very little inconvenience, and might do the Garden great good. The 

 best plan would be to send to the Director a list of rare plants whose 

 roots or seeds can be procured by the writer, and then all needless 

 trouble would be avoided. Mr. Sereno Watson has in charge the 

 naming of the large collection already under cultivation, and his 

 name is a guarantee to botanists that all the labels can be depended 

 upon. 



Vitality of the Seeds of Serotinous Cones. — On page 54 

 Prof. Sargent gave the results of his experiments with serotinous 

 (closed) cones of Finns contorta, which I had collected in 1874 in 

 Colorado, kept for more than four years in a garret, and sent to him 

 in the spring of 1879. Seeds of cones 13 years old and 10 years old 

 did not germinate ; one out of six of 9 year old seeds, one out of 

 eleven of 8 year old seeds, one out of three of 7 year old and one out 

 of four of 6 year old seeds germinated and grew up well ; those of 5 

 year old cones did not come up. Prof. Sargent pronounces the result 

 to be unsatisfactory. To me it seems to be eminently satisfactory. 

 It proved that part of the seeds from cones 5 to 9 years old had re- 

 tained their vitality and that those that are older than 9 years failed ; 

 younger ones would undoubtedly have also germinated had such 

 been experimented upon. The result shows that pine seeds of sero- 

 tinous cones, or, to be more exact, seeds of Finns cotiiorta, kept under 

 the circumstances detailed above, could and did retain their vitality a 

 number of years — even nine years — while the perishable nature of 

 pine seeds under ordinary circumstances is well known. The econ- 

 omy or the effect of keeping tlre^ cones closed is therefore evidently 

 the preservation of the vitality of the seeds for a number of years be- 

 yond their maturity. What is not fully known and what will have to 



