267 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



lished. The specimens producing the seeds described are, the writer 

 thinks, a variety of N. odorata, contrary to the opinion of Mr. War- 

 der, who inclines to think them N. tuberosa. The flowers are large 

 for N. odorata^ less odorous, and the leaves of some of them are raised 

 above the water's surface like the older leaves of Nehunbiiwi, but the 

 seeds are oblong, and raised on a stipe within the arillus which is much 

 longer than the seed ; while in tV. tuberosa the arillus is shorter, the 

 seed round and not stipitate. 



These observations have been mostly made by Dr. Warder 

 and his son, by whose request they are placed on record by 



Davis L. James. 



Scales of Thuja ^■io:aiitea 3-oviiled— i have long known 



that the scales of Thuja gigantca, Nutt., were three-ovuled and usually 

 three-seeded, but do not see it noted in any of the books I have ex- 

 amined. The seeds are imbricate,that is, the wings of the two outside 

 ones overlap the inner one. I see no difference in the wings, both " 

 sides being alike in all I have examined. 



The genus Thuja as laid down in the botany of California will 

 have to be amended to include this species, as it grows in this vicinity. 



Another thing I have not seen noted; it annually sheds, not only 

 its leaves, but its branchlets. These turn yellow in the fall and drop 

 off in a few weeks. — Thomas Howell, Sauvics Island, Orcgo77. 



Plants of Nortll-Western Australia, enumerated by Baron 

 Ferdinand von Mueller. — This folio pamphlet of twenty pages comes 

 from a strange country with a list of still stranger plants. The north- 

 western part of Australia had never been explored botanically before 

 i86r. at which time about 120 species were recorded. The present 

 list is made from a collection of Mr. John Forrest while engaged in a 

 trigonometrical survey of the Nickol Bay District during the year 

 1878. "Among the plants given as of more than ordinary interest are 

 the real Caper-plant {Capparis spirwsa), not specifically distinct trnm 

 the Mediterranean typical plant ; the Strychnia-bush { Strych/ws ttux- 

 vomica); the ordinary Haricot Bean {Fhaseolus vulgaris); Hibiscus Golds- 

 worthii a highly ornamental shrub ; Eremophila Eraseri, a bush of 

 showy splendor ; the Dccazesia (a new genus of Corupositce), an elegant 

 everlasting, the glorious Marie Palm (^LivisUma Mariic), the only 

 palm as yet known from the west coast of Australia, restricted there 

 seemingly to a solitary locality." 



"Strange, however, is the almost total absence of ferns, only 

 Acrostichum aureum representing that otherwise large and lovely order 

 among about 400 species of plants now gradually accumulated in col- 

 lections from the district." 



The arrangement of orders is most bewildering to the American 

 botanist, doing violence to all his ideas of system. Apetalous, mono- 

 petalous'and polypetalous orders are to be found mixed in every way. 

 It also looks queer to see the genus Andropogon among the Amaran- 

 iacca\ as well as among Grasses. The country is a great one, though, 

 and many a rich harvest of plants is waiting to be reaped. 



