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A New Species of Erythronium (Dog- Tooth Violet, or Adder's Tongue), 

 is described in the American. Naturalist, for July, by Professor Asa Gray, and 

 named by him Erythronium propullans. It is of much interest from the pecu- 

 liar manner in which the bulb propagates. It was discovered at Faribault, 

 Minn., by Mrs. Mary E. Hedges, the teacher of botany in St. Mary's School, 

 who also noticed the peculiarity above mentioned. " The flower is much smaller 

 than that of any other known species, being barely half an inch long ; and its 

 color a bright pink or rose, like that of the European E. Dens Canis, reflects the 

 meaning of the generic name, viz., red, which is lost to us in our two familiar 

 Adder Tongues, one with yellow, the other with white blossoms. The most sin- 

 gular peculiarity of the new species is found in the way in which the bulb prop- 

 agates. In E. Dens Canis new bulbs are produced directly from the side of the 

 old one, on which they are sessile, so that the plant, as it multiplies, forms close 

 clumps. In our E. Americamun, long and slender offshoots, or subterranean 

 runners, proceed from the base of the parent bulb, and develop the new bulb at 

 their distant apex. Our western E. albidum does not differ in this respect. In 

 the new species an offshoot springs from the ascending slender stem, or sub- 

 terranean sheathed portion of the scape (which is commonly five or six inches 

 long), remote from the parent bulb, usually about midway between it and the 

 bases, or apparent insertion of the pair of leaves. This lateral offshoot grows 

 downward, sometimes lengthening, as in the foregoing species, sometimes re- 

 maining short, and its apex dilates into a new bulb." 



Grapes ix Texas. — It has been noticed that grapes approaching in foliage 

 the European, do best in Texas. 



vou IX. 20 30s 



