52 
Central America, whose place in the scheme of things in that 
world is so graphically described by Thomas Belt in “ The Natu- 
ralist in Nicaragua.” These plants in their natural home and the 
ants form a mutual aid society, according to Belt—the ants pro- 
tecting the plant and the plants furnishing food and housing. The 
food consists of honey and of little yellow fruit-like bodies that are 
said to be highly nitrogenous, and grow at the tip of each tiny 
leaflet. 
The Edible-stemmed Grape (Vitis quadrangularis) 1s another 
bizarre tenant of this section. It comes originally from northern 
Africa and the warmer parts of Asia, and its stems are used for 
food in India, instead of its fruit. Its stem is very succulent and 
this, together with its small insignificant leaves, often leads even 
plant specialists to mistake it for a cactus or euphorbia. Part o 
a bed is devoted to the common tropical Sensitive Plant (7 can 
and in other beds there are specimens of the Castor Bean plant 
(Ricinus), with its exploding seed capsules ; the Squirting Cucum- 
ber (Ecballium), that shoots its seeds from a ripe fruit with con- 
siderable force to a distance of ten feet or more; the Spanish 
Bayonet (Yucca) with its indispensable, black-eyed, silver gray 
little moths; and Kentucky Hemp, with a blue-flower parasite 
(Orobanche ) that lives on its roots and takes its toll of hemp plant 
foo 
During the last year two new demonstration beds have been 
added, both dealing with inheritance problems. One of these plots 
consists of two exhibits, the plants used being Indian corn or 
maize. The first exhibit shows two inbred strains of maize and 
the much more vigorous and prolific progeny that result from 
crossing them (Fig. 7). The other exhibit involves two very 
dwarf (less than a foot mien) but distinct varieties of yellow dent 
maize called ““ Nana” and “ Dwarf.” These, when crossed, give 
first generation progeny over seven feet high (Fig. 8). Both 
these exhibits attracted special interest. The seed from which 
they were grown was received through the kindness of the De- 
partment of Plant Breeding, Connecticut Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, and Dr. D. F. Jones. 
The other new demonstration feature of genetic interest was a 
bed of Four-o’clocks showing the results of crossing a yellow- 
