BOTAMCAL GAZETTE. 282 



paper is of interest to every one and shows with what rare tlie author 

 works in the collection of facts, not only from others, but from his own 

 experiments. He says that corn is a variab'e and plastic plant and 

 exceedingly sensitive to good or b id treatment, and hence much can 

 yet be done to imi)rovc it Among many other interesting statistics 

 we note some relating to the size of corn stalk.i. The tallest the au- 

 thor had seen was 14)^ feet high, being raised in Michigan from Mis- 

 souri seed. The largest on record was raised in Eastern Tennessee 

 and measured 22]/^ f^-'et. A field of such corn would look liUe a ca; e 

 brake. 



Mr. a. W. Bennett haslieen observing the constancy of insects 

 in visiting flowers, which becomes an important question in the matter 

 of cross-fertilization. His results show a constancy that was hoped 

 for, and bees and butterflies are quite constant enough in their atten- 

 tions to single species to secure all that is claimed in cross-fertilization. 

 It seems that insects are not entirely guided by color in their discrimi- 

 nation of species, for in patches of white and purple foxgloves the 

 bumblebees would enter the flowers regardless of color, though to fin'l 

 a succession of foxgloves thev had to fly considerable distances over 

 other flowers. The hive bee proved to be the most constant visitor, 

 and probably the most efficient agent of cross fertilization. 



Fritz Mueller, in a recent letter to Mr Chas. Darwin, written 

 from Sta. Catharina in Brazil, says: "We have had last week some 

 rather cold nights (2° to 3° C. at sunrise), and these have given me a 

 new confirmation of your view on the meaning of the nyctitropic 

 movements of plants. Near my house there are some Pandanus trees, 

 about a dozen years old; the youngest terminal leaves stand upright, 

 whereas the older ones are bent down so as to expose their upper sur- 

 faces to the sky. These young leaves, though of course the most ten- 

 der, are still as fresh and green as before; on the contrary, the older 

 ones have suffered from the cold, and have become quite yellowish. 

 Again, the leaves of Oxalis sepium were observed by me to sleep in a 

 very imperfect manner during the summer, even after the most sunny 

 days; but now, in winter, every leaflet hangs down in a perpendicular 

 position during the whole night." Whereu|:)on Mr. Darwin remarks 

 that it is a new fact to him that leaves should sleep in a more or less 

 jicrfect manner at different seasons of the year. In regard to the 

 Pandanus leaves, Mr. Darwin's view is that some leaves place them- 

 selves at night in a vertical position in order to escape being chilled 

 and injured by radiation into the open sky. 



The time is at hand for the renewal of subscriptions and the 

 Gazette presents its claims among other botanical periodicals. In 

 order to see its usefulness one has only to look over the index to Vols. 

 V and VI, ready to be issued with the December number. In it will 

 l)e found references to tiie descriptions of nearly 100 new species, 

 over 40 of which are phiiinogamous, and two of these trees. Besides 

 these there are many articles upon the i)hvsiology and histology of 

 plants, some of tliem illustrated, and all of them useful. During the 

 past year the Catalogue of the Flora of Indiana has been pushed 



