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stigmas remain receptive for a considerably longer period, and can then 
receive the pollen of other flowers. 
Professor Hildebrand remarks, in conclusion, that the conditions of 
fertilization or pollenation must be observed in each single species, since 
closely allied species of the same genus show strikingly different phe- 
nomena in this respect; and moreover each separate species may exhibit 
very different behavior when exposed to different conditions of climate. 
To this end it is hoped that a series of observations on this very impor- 
tant and interesting subject may be forthcoming from botanists in dif- 
ferent couniries. 
THE BABYLONIAN OR WEEPING WILLOW.—A writer in Silliman’s 
Journal says that from the investigations of Karl Kock, it appears that 
the “Garab” upon which, according to the psalmist, the captive Jews 
at Babylon hung their harps, is not the weeping willow, named Salix 
Babylonica by Linneus on account of the current tradition; and indeed 
is not a willow at all, but a poplar. Ranwolf had long ago concluded 
that the tree was not a willow. The Salix Babylonica, whose hardiness 
indicates a cooler climate than that of Mesapotamia, is now regarded 
as of Chinese or Japanese origin; so that its specific Linnzan name 
gives place to that of Salix pendula, Meench. 
Rocky MOUNTAIN OAK.—Mr. Serono Watson, in the America Natu- 
ralist for May, gives descriptions of twenty-five new plants growing in 
Utah and Arizona collected last year by the expeditions of Lieutenant 
Wheeler and of Major Powell, with the following note upon the Rocky 
Mountain Oak: 
Quercus undulata, Torr. 'The common low oak of the Rocky Mountains and Wahsatch 
ranges southward to New Mexico and Southern Utah. An examination of considera- 
ble material shows that it is quite variable in its foliage, and includes several reputed 
species and forms. The typical form has oblong leaves with acute or acutish, entire, 
divaricate, mostly triangular lobes, the sinuses reaching half way to the midrib. This 
is also Quercus Fendleri, “Lehm. With large leaves and the lobes sometimes coarsely 
notched, it becomes Q. Gambelli, Nutt., and @ Douglasii, var. Neo-Mexicana, D.C. With 
the lobes more obtuse it is Q. alba, var. Gunnisoni, Torr.; and with the lobes less divar- 
icate and more oblong, frequently notched at the apex, and the rounded or narrow 
sinuses reaching often nearly to the midrib, it is the more prevalent northern form, 
Q. obtusiloba, var. depressa, Nutt., and the vane Utahensis, D. C. The extreme states 
appear quite distinct, but intermediate forms abound, and there seems to be nothing i in 
the flowers or fruit to distinguish them. 
