265 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



en a part of the racemes immersed, so that only the flowering portion 

 was visible. The pods were therefore kept under water, and I rarely- 

 found one to have ripened seeds and I doubt whether these would 

 have germinated. As the pods were slightly inflated I concluded 

 that they served to hold the still flowering portion above water. If 

 the pods ripen but rarely the plant must have other means of propa- 

 gation since it spreads rapidly. And these it has, for it was found to 

 spread abundantly by means of branches from the base of the stems 

 trailing along the bottom of the pond and striking roots as they grow. 

 About the flowering season, the much divided immersed leaves break 

 off from the stem. Just above their bases a small branch appears. 

 The base of the parent leaf curves downwards into the water, so that 

 the branches as they grow larger are enabled to float on the water, by 

 bending away from the parent leaf so that the midrib of the parent leaf 

 and the stem of the branch are in the same line. While still small the 

 roots appear at the base of of the stem and run up the curved base of 

 the parent leaf for a distance of one-fourth inch from the base ; in this 

 manner they are sometimes above water but still appearing to be in 

 good health. Here my observations ceased. Whether these rootlets 

 derive nutriment from the parent leaves, if they continue to grow un- 

 til they reach the tip of the leaves, I know not. But in a month they 

 had all become attached to the bottom of the pond. Still it seems 

 probable that as the base of the stem becomes too heavy to float it 

 sinks into the water, the heavy parent leaves begin to rot and hang 

 vertically and so direct the roots into the soil, at the same time afford- 

 ing nutriment, which it as yet does not obtain from the ground. — 



Aug. F. Foerste, Dayton^ Ohio. 



Hieraeium aurantiaCUm, \i.— Hieracium aurantiacum (not 

 auraniium, as printed at p. 248.) I have had sent to me several times 

 from correspondents in the Eastern States during the past twenty years, 

 and sometimes from stations which suggested that this plant may pos- 

 sibly be indigenous. It would be well, before the plant becomes too 

 common for the purpose, to note the surroundings, so as to judge of 

 the mode of introduction if possible. Miss Mary S. Cope, of the 

 Ladies' Botany Club of Germantown, collected fine specimens on the 

 Catskills in July of this year. A native of Siberia, according to 

 Gmelin, there is no reason why it may not be indigenous in some 

 of our higher mountains, the chief objection to this view being its 

 apparent rapid spread of late years. A plant of its character would, 

 in all probability, have been more widely distributed if truly indigen- 

 ous. Still I think it would be well to have a note of all the stations 

 and conditions under which they grow. — Thomas Meehan. 



Albillisin. — White flowers of species normally blue or red ar^ 

 comparatively common. It does not seem to be on record that color- 

 ed flowers ever come from those normally white. The white varieties 

 of colored species, when under culture, continue to reproduce white 

 flowers, at least I never knew one to revert till now. I enclose the 

 specimen IVa/ilcn/'crgia grandiflonj. One single blue flower has come 



