RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



61 



and are disposed in a flat corymb of intense 

 yellow. The plant blooms in September, 

 and always tempts us back to our summer 

 repose. 



It is surprising what these apparently 

 sandy plains will yield in the way of flowers. 

 Beside the golden daisies, before referred 

 to, there is at present a glorious display of 

 lilies. Everywhere one finds the hand-like 

 spike of a pale blue lobelia. A singular 

 plant which is here very common is the 

 colie root {Aletris farinosa). It has a ro- 

 sette of radical leaves, oblong in shape, 

 and straight nerved. From the centre of 

 these rises a tall scope bearing a lot of white 

 mealy-looking flow^ers. The meadow beau- 

 ties are now ver^' abundant, forming bril- 

 liant patches of rose purple. The calyx is 

 a dark red, and is urn-shaped. The sta- 

 mens have long 3'ellow, singular-looking an- 

 thers hanging forward and opening at the 

 top. By pressure the pollen is projected 

 from the apical pores. This genus (Rhexia) 

 is the sole representative at the North of a 

 vast family of tropical plants, many of them 

 large and gorgeous. They are distinctive 

 of South America. We have found stra^' 

 specimens of the ragged orchis, and of the 

 hinged loose sU'ipe, Li/thrum alatum, which 

 according to the books is here far out of 

 range. 



Two species of polygala are quite fre- 

 quent, and one of them extremel}' pretty. 

 The young student will find them hard to 

 describe. There is a small 3-ellow-flowered 

 flax, the delicate blue Linaria, the daisy 

 fleabane, and the white top aster. If we 

 step aside into moister soil we will find 

 many other things. Among these, the 

 most showy are the calopozons and gozo- 

 nias, both of them members of the beautiful 

 orchis family. All of this lineage are with 

 us terrestrial, but in the tropics their are 

 largely air plants, gorgeous in hue and ex- 

 traordinar3' in form. Their color and shapes 

 are corelated with the visits of insects. As 

 Gra}' sa3's, " free lunches are never pro- 

 vided without a hope of recompense." The 

 treat is the nectar or honey, the removal 

 the transference of pollen from flower to 

 flower. 



Another little plant, forever associated 

 with D.irwin, which we here find commonly 

 along the remains of the old horse railroad 

 to Apponaug, is the sun dew. It is now in 



flower, and is perhaps, the best known of the 

 carnivorous plants. 



We see so many persons wandering aim- 

 lessl}- among these wild flowers, and often 

 seeking their names in vain, that we are 

 led to pen these few notes to aid their steps 

 if possible. To us the process of accumu- 

 lation has been a long one. Let no one 

 suppose either that it has been easy. If 

 there is any art worth knowing that can be 

 so characterized, we have not met it. Bot- 

 any at its best calls to-day for a large men- 

 tal equipment. One should be a good clas- 

 sical scholar, (hence we have no quarrel, 

 but onh' love, for good old Latin and 

 Greek,) should be a good chemist and phy- 

 sicist, and it would be of advantage if he 

 knows entomology'. But above all he must 

 be an observer and reasoner, seeing all 

 things, judging all things, and open to ar- 

 gument and proof. w. w. b. 



BUTTONWOODS, July 13. 



The Growth of Unio Complanatus, Lea. 



I HAD never before been able to learn 

 how long a time it took a Unio to ma- 

 ture. There is a brook on our place, 

 that I have dredged from one end to the 

 other and never could find an\' shells 

 but Anodonta subcylindracea, Lea, A. un- 

 dulata, Sa}', A. fluviatilis. Lea, Sphaerium 

 striatinum. Lam, Physa heterostropha, Sa}', 

 Plaporbella cam,panulatus, Sa}'. Now the 

 brook runs into the Raritan River, about 

 one and one-half miles from our place, and 

 besides we made a small pond ; the dam is 

 three feet in height, so that no Unio could 

 get into the pond and brook above. Oct. 30, 

 1881,1 planted eighteen specimens of U. com- 

 planatus ; they were one and one-half inches 

 in length when 1 planted them. On April 29, 

 1883, as I was dredging this pond, to \x\y sur- 

 prise I found five Unio complanatus, and 

 the}' measured over four inches in length; 

 hardl}' an}' variation in all five. Now the 

 brook is quite full of them, and in an hour I 

 can get one hundred or more. As they 

 were growing about eighteen months, they 

 must have grown over one and one-half 

 inches in a 3'ear. 



I should like to hear if an}' one has ob- 

 served the same development before, or 

 knows the facts of their growth. 



Thomas Morgan. 



