1885. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



249 



smallest stems, but was found also in those of over 

 a quarter of an inch in diameter, and where of 

 course a considerable belt of hard wood was found 

 between the pith and the outer zone, where chloro- 

 phyll is expected. It was also observed in Lycium 

 that the chlorophyll was not in the form of bodies 

 but diffused in character, as it is said to be in some 

 infusorians. In Lycium the cells of the pith 

 showed, in winter, abundance of protoplasm which 

 had the nucleus on one side and very striking 

 bands extending thence across the cell to the 

 further side. 



The Wild Fruits of Colorado. — A lady, 

 Marion Muir, contributes to I'icks' Monthly some 

 very interesting facts regarding the wild fruits of 

 Colorado, less valuable than they might be, because 

 one can scarcely know what is referred to in conse- 

 quence of the want of botanical names. These 

 we will endeavor from the descriptions to supply. 

 Plums do not ascend the mountains, but hug their 

 bases from the plains ; it is probably the same as 

 the Beach plum of the East, Prunus maritima, 

 which the Editor has gathered in that region. 

 The choke cherry is not the one of that name in 

 the East, Prunus Virginiana, but Prunus demissa. 

 It is worthy of note that the Editor has seen this 

 in this mountain region as fully covered with the 

 plum knot as in the species common in the East. 



There are three kinds of wild currants — red, 

 yellow, and black, she says. The wild mulberry 

 is not Rubus odoratus, as she says, but Rubus 

 deliciosus. The fruit is insipid, but "eaten by 

 children and Indians." "The squaws used to 

 gather all kinds of wild fruits, pound them up with 

 a flat stone, and dry them in cakes in the sun." 

 The Poison currant, loaded in July with scarlet 

 berries, sweet and pleasant but with a bitter skin, 

 causes drowsiness and nausea but no fatal results, 

 is, probably, the aromatic Rhus, Rhus aromatica. 

 The small red cherry found in the mountain 

 gulches, is, doubtless, Cerasus pumila — the Sand 

 cherry of the East — and which we have had even 

 from the Wahsatch range. The " wild grapes, 

 Mustang grapes, are above the water courses, 

 small, acid, puckerish fruit, often in heavy clus- 

 ters," is the Vitis Arizonica of Engelmann. The 

 Oregon grape, Berberis aquifolium, is the variety 

 repens, and " is used for cooking by some house- 

 keepers." 



Drinking Water, and Cess-pool Nui- 

 sances. — The nitrogenous matters in bad water 

 are just what plants like to feed on. Plants in 

 streams tend to purify the water, and the roots 



of trees around cesspools feed on matter that 

 might, but for them, get into the wells of drinking 

 water near by. A weeping willow near out- 

 buildings, has a rhuch mightier influence for good 

 on the health of those in the vicinity, than by the 

 mere shade which it affords. In all the worry 

 about drinking water which the mere chemist 

 makes, the public forgets to take counsel of the 

 biologist. Nature has so nicely balanced her 

 ominiscient forces, that though the chemist can 

 show us that we are everlastingly in danger of 

 destruction, the physiologist knows that she is 

 only in fun ; and that though she dangles us over 

 the abyss with one hand, she takes care to catch 

 us with the other. 



A Water Plant Catching Fish. — The blad- 

 ders of the curious water weed— Utricularia — still 

 occupy the attention of the curious in the Old 

 World. The fact that these bladders caught living 

 things was first observed in this country by Mrs. 

 Mary Treat, of Vineland, N. J. ; but the fact does 

 not seem to have attracted the same wonderment 

 in America as in the Old World, where it is a con- 

 tinuous topic with newspaper writers. The blad- 

 ders are very small, not much larger than small 

 bird shot, and when the magazmes which love to 

 put the sensational into scientific topics talk about 

 the plant being a dangerous enemy to the fish 

 culturist, we have to make all due allowances. 

 Very small fish are caught, and larger ones, as 

 Professor Mosely says, held by the tail till they 

 die ; but these unfortunates will be but a small 

 portion of those that would be caught and eaten 

 by the larger fish. Very few of the immense 

 number spawned reach maturity, plentiful though 

 the stock may seem to the fisherman. For what 

 purpose the bladders catch the animalculae and 

 minute creatures is not known, if, indeed, there is 

 any special purpose of this kind. Professor 

 Mosely says that it has not been found that there 

 is any digestive operation going on, as it is be- 

 lieved there is in some of the carnivorous plants, 

 more properly so called. — Independent. 



Early Botany in Philadelphia. — Bartram 

 began his garden in 1728. Peter Kalm, for whom 

 the Kalmia was named, settled in Philadelphia in 

 1748. Dr. Adam Kuhn, the first Professor of 

 Botany in America, and for whom is named the 

 Kuhnia, settled in Philadelphia in 1768. In 1773, 

 Humphrey Marshall, commemorated in the Mar- 

 shallia, and the author of the first botanical work 

 in America, commenced his botanic garden at Mar- 

 shallton. 



