J 59 BOTANICAL GAZET2E. 



Mentzelia Floridana, Nutt., is not confined to the west coast. It 

 is firmly established on Anastasia Island, and I have seen a itw plants 

 in a neglected spot here in town. I know, to my great annoyance, 

 that it grew plenlifully on Merritt's Island in the Indian River, 

 because I heedlessly rambled about one day while botanizing and 

 allowed my dress to become so covered with the old club shaped 

 hollow seed-vessels, leaves and bits of the brittle stems, that it 

 required the active work of two friends during an entire hour to pick 

 off the pests! The plant seems to be thoroughly armed with bristly 

 barbed hairs, which are well adapted to promote the distribution of 

 the seed vessels. 



I saw a patch of flourishing Iresine veniiicidaris, Moquin., 

 upon one of the banks of the Halifax river, and a few months since 

 was pleased to find it establishing" itself upon the banks of the Maria 

 Sanchez creek in our town. 



During the last three or four years I have occasionally seen Kall- 

 stroemia maxima, Torr. & Gray, as a very scarce weed in one or two 

 places in cultivated grounds. 



Avicennia ohlongifolia, Nutt. is quite common on the shores of our 

 inlet, and a Pancratiuiii is commonly cultivated in our gardens, wliich 

 I am sure must be the Pancratium Caribaeiim, L., described by Dr. 

 Chapman in the Gazette of March, 1878. It flourishes in cultiva- 

 tion, increasing quite rapidly, and the blossoms are large, very hand- 

 some and very fragrant. 



iJuniniu Fiiimieri, Jacq , is an elegant shrub in our gardens 

 noteworthy for its beautiful, golden, wax-like berries, which remain on 

 the bush a long time. Of the genus Utriciilaria we have about here 

 four described species, U. inflata, U. purpurea, U. cornuia, and U. 

 subulata. In October, 1879, I found in muddy places in the pine- 

 barrens several specimens of the smallest Utricularia that I have ever 

 seen, and this year I have collected it again in several localities. Prof. 

 A. Gray wrote me last year concerning it, "I have little doubt it is 

 U. simplex oi Q,. Wright, Cuba,'"' and that lie had no specimens like 

 it. It grows in the same localities with U. cornuta and U. subulata. 

 'J'he scape is stouter than that oi subulata, but the corolla is much 

 smaller. 



Last spring I saw in the garden of a friend, living about twenty 

 miles south of us, a number of flourishing plants of Abutilon pedun- 

 eulare, HBK. The seeds were brought from the Indian River 

 country, where the ])lant grows wild. These plants were four or five 

 feet high, and taking kindly to their new home, were rapidly propa- 

 gating themselves. — Mary C. Reynolds, St. Augustiii"., Fla. 



Cross Fertilization* of the Chestnut Tree. — I would like 

 to publish the following field notes, for their bearing on the vexed 

 (juestion of the Cross-Fertilization of the Chestnut Tree: 



The first white settlers came to this county (Wabash) in 1803. 

 They were undoubtedly disappointed in not finding the old and fa- 

 miliar chestnut of their eastern homes; and so- on their first visit to 



