1908] Notes. 185 



quail, woodcock and rabbit, and affording nesting sites to 

 innumerable thrashers, veeries, chewinks, catbirds and rose- 

 breasted grosbeaks. One of the most interesting of these 

 twiners is the Wild Yam, Dioscorea villosa, whose knotted root- 

 stocks in many places lie thickly matted a few inches below the 

 surface. It is a graceful, slender twiner with heart-shaped, 

 pointed leaves and small greenish-yellow flowers. The fruiting 

 capsules are conspicuous in drooping racemes, persisting after 

 the leaves have fallen. The plant seems to be restricted to a few 

 of these block-soiled ravines, but, in those in which it does grow, 

 it is the most abundant of the twiners. The soil in which it 

 grows is so light that the root-stocks of the Dioscorea, as well as 

 the roots of many shrubs and brambles, are readily removed 

 without the aid even of a trowel. Its stems are frequently 

 intertwined with those of Celastrus, Smilax herbacea and S. 

 roHmdijolia, while Euonymus Americanus covers the ground, its 

 crimson pods with their scarlet arils loeing highly ornamental 

 in the autumn. 



Dioscorea villosa is reported as being rare in Ontario. The 

 writer would be glad to hear through The Ott.\wa Naturalist, 

 or otherwise, of its occurrence elsewhere. 



NOTES. 



In the removal to Toronto of Dr. S. B. Sinclair, late Vice- 

 Principal of the Normal School, the Club loses from the ranks 

 of its active membership one who, for a number of years past, 

 has taken a keen and enthusiastic interest in our work. It is 

 almost entirely due to Dr. Sinclair that the happy and im- 

 portant relationship that exists between the Club and the 

 students of the Normal School to-day, has been brought about. 

 He has placed before each successive class the benefits to be 

 derived from our excursions and lecture courses and taken no 

 small part in helping the Executive to make these occasions of 

 real value to his students. It would he hard to over-estimate 

 his influence on these future teachers in our Public Schools, in 

 thus awakening and encouraging in them a love for Nature 

 Study. 



It is not only in this good work that Dr. Sinclair has taken 

 an active part. For many years he was our Librarian and for 

 several terms our esteemed President, directing and assisting 

 in a most helpful way in all matters that served to promote the 

 objects of the Club in this city. We shall miss greatly his genial, 

 stimulating presence from our gatherings, and it is with rnuch 

 regret that we part with him as our coadjutor. Our best wishes 



