190 The Botanical Gazette. [June r 



A private letter from Lt. R. E. Peary, of the U. S. Navy, who 

 proposes to attempt to reach the north pole on foot through Green- 

 land, contains the following information that will be of interest to 

 botanists: "I leave this country next June for Whale Sound, Green- 

 land, from which point as a base I propose to determine the northern 

 terminus of Greenland over the inland ice. I expect to be absent from 

 i^t0 2^ years. The region about Whale Sound is rich in Arctic 

 plants, Kane having brought home 106 species of Phanerogams, and 

 42 species of Cryptogams, several of which were new. I am under 

 the impression that with the exception of the above collection, and 

 Haves' from the same region, there are few plants from the Green- 

 land higher latitude in this country, and that fresh specimens, subjected 

 to modern methods of scientific research, would yield valuable results. 

 Some specimens which I brought home from Greenland in 1886, have 

 been considered valuable." Since the above was written, arrangements 

 have been made with Lt. Peary to turn over his collections to the 

 Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. 



It is a well-known fact, that abnormally developed leaves are far 

 from rare in nature, but one of the most peculiar forms is undoubt- 

 edly that to which Russell has called attention. 1 It is the so-called 

 ascidia-form. which has been observed in several families, although as 

 a mere abnormity. The appearance of such leaves varies from cornet- 

 like, where the two margins of the blade of a leaf have grown together 

 at the base, to hood-like, where the margins are entirely united for 

 their whole length. This last form has been observed by Russell, IB 

 the leaflets of the uppermost leaves of Vicia sepium, intermixed \*tn 

 cornet-shaped and normal ones. In these abnormal leaflets, the cells 

 of the mesophyll have increased enormously 111 size, forming a nearly 

 solid tissue. The shape of the cells of the two lowest strata of the 

 mesophyll, especially those just under the inferior epidermis and close 

 to the midrib, has also been transformed. They have become much 

 higher than broad, very much like the palisade-tissue of the superior 

 face. The fibro-vascular bundles have been moved towards the su- 

 perior face of the blade, but have not been modified essentially- 

 Chlorophyll was rather scarce in these abnormal leaflets. This 

 transformation is due to puncture of an insect made in the superior 

 epidermis. Larvae were found in the younger ascidia, probably be- 

 longing to a Cecidomyia. — T. H. 



1 Etude des folioles anormales du Vicia sepium: Revue generate de Botanique, 

 no. 23. '• 6 



