ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



317 



persons foi-mod thpinselves into !i Bolaiiioal 

 Society, iloinsr me the honor to make me their 

 president. AVhen I left we numbered a dozen. 

 Prof. Beal is the vice-president, and he is doinji' 

 muoli in Chicago to interest his pupils in the 

 study of Botany. * * * * yv'c spent five 

 weeks in the north of Africa, wliicli is one grand 

 flower garden, and wished we oouhl lengthen 

 the weeks into months. At Algiers we made 

 the acquaintance of Signor Durande, an Italian, 

 who has lived in Africa for twenty years, .and 

 has been one of the innsl imixnlant cdntributors 

 to the '^Botanvof Aliii'iia," \unv |mlilishing by 

 the French Goveiiiinent. I!iit, like all works 

 brought out by governinenl, it i)rogres!,es very 

 slowly, and will be so expensive it will benefit 

 but few. For years Mr. Durande has done what 

 I would like to have you do, and what will, I 

 think, do much to excite interest in the study 

 of Natural History, particularly among women. 

 Something akin to it was initiated long ago in 

 Salem, by the Director of the Institute, and has 

 been so successful that nearly every person in 

 Salem knows something of Natural Science. 

 One day iu the week ]SIr. Durande makes an 

 excursion to some jilace in the vicinity of Al- 

 giers, taking with him such students of the 

 Medical College with which he is connei-ted as 

 choose to accompany him, and gentlemen and 

 ladies living in the city or strangers sojourning 

 there. We had the pleasure of joining two of 

 these excursions; one to Blida, whiilier we 

 went by rail, and one to Cape Matilbu, to 

 which we drove. Our party was made up of 

 Danes, French, Germans, English and Ameri- 

 cans. At Blida, one of the loveliest spots im- 

 aginable, perfectly embowered in orange groves, 

 we explored the Botanical Garden (the like of 

 which is not in all America, and you must re- 

 collect tliat so far as anything of tliis sort goes 

 Algeria is but forty years old), several private 

 gardens, and a wild ravine whose rocks were 

 covered with mosses, ferns and lycopodia, Mr. 

 Durande telling us names and explaining affini- 

 ties, modes of culture, &c., &c., in the most 

 charming way. At Cape Matifou we gathered 

 flowers, one gentleman and lady collected shells, 

 some sketched the ruins of the Roman city of 

 llusconia, which sent a bishop to the tirst Chris- 

 tian council; and we had a mo-:t enjoyable day, 

 to say nothing of the profit we derived from the 

 teachings of Sig. Durande, and the conversation 

 of intelligent people from ditt'erent pans of the 

 world. 



NOTES P110.1I CORRESCONDENTS. 



A Natural Craft Hybrid of (Jaercua alha and (J. 

 tinctoria.—l was recently iiilbrnieil pf a remarkaljle 

 " Iiulian gnifl ola fJlack DiiU on a 'Wlute Oak," iu the 

 neighborhood oX I'taersbuij;, 111. , anil li-uiug the almost 

 incredible story from good authority, I was induced to 

 visit tlie locality to learn if it was really true. 'I'o my 

 gi'cat regret I Iband the tree prostrated by a storm, ap- 

 parently about two years ago, and the top princii)ally 

 hauled olf lor fuel, but that portion where the union 

 was formoti, and the smaller portions of the limbs of the 

 hybrid were left on tlie ground. The story of the In- 

 dian graft I loiuid to be current iu the neighborhood, 

 luid numbers of people knew all about It. It appears 



that the union was formed in a portion of the top of the 

 White Oak about fifty-five feet from the ground, and, 

 judging from the layers of wood, about 7."> years ago. 

 It seems that the Black Oak ( iiiiercua tindoria, for such 

 it really appeared to be) had fallen into the White Oak 

 —as was evident from the remains of a decayed limb 

 iind the positions of growth— and had by some unac- 

 countable means united with it, and had srown from the 

 point of union a huge branching limb, nioic than twice 

 the diameter of the linili of the While Oak upon which 

 it was attached. No remains of a tree of Qutrcus llitc- 

 toria was now in reach of the White Oak upon which 

 this remarkable graft was growing, and the most pro- 

 bable explanation ol the modus operandi is that (iuercm 

 tinctoria, when falling, had dashed a rather large limb 

 into the tork ol the White Oak top with force enough to 

 remove the bark from both species, and being so lirmly 

 pressed by the fork that a inii..ii wa- circrtd. 



15nt what will most intci-c>l Ihc l.uiaiiUl is. that the 

 graft clearly sliows hybi-iili-hi, iir.uiu-c no leaves 

 could now be had, but the wuud, balk and buds appear 

 about equally to belong to both species, y, alba showing 

 strongly in the smaller limbs, and the rough bark of Q. 

 tinctoria most fully developed at the point of union and 

 grading to the smaller limbs, where it may be said to 

 insensibly disappear. This interesting and remarkable 

 production may be recorded as atlding another to the 

 few known graft hybrids in the vegetable kingdom. 



Athens, Ills. E. Hall. 



p. S— Tell your correspondent, G. H. French, that I 

 will "go the eider" that his remarkable tree (described 

 in the June number) is the lientucky Coffee tree (tfjm- 

 nodadas Caruidmsis). 



Botanical IVotes — MR. Editor: In complying 

 with your request for botanical notes from this jiortion 

 of the State, I will confine myself, for the present, to 

 the counties of Union and Jackson — a region not less 

 interesting to the botanist for the number and peculiarity 

 of its species, than to the tourist for the beauty of its 

 scenery . 



It embraces a range of nearly 2,!i00 vertical feet of 

 geological strata; and, as the drift formation is generally 

 absent, the soil is made by decomposition of the under- 

 lying rocks, and varies widely in character according to 

 the rocks from which it is formed and upon which it rests. 



From the Mississippi bottoms upon its western border 

 —but little above the level of the Ohio at Cairo— it rises 

 to the Cobden hills, among the highest in the .State; 

 and its surface ^aries from the lagoons and swamps of 

 the former to the rocky and precipitous bluffs of Uie bill 

 country in the west. Its southerly situation gives it a 

 genial climate, and the great comparative height to 

 which portions of it are elevated protects them from 

 late and early frosts. Consequently we fiinl here an un- 

 usual variety of species, many of them not known else- 

 where north of the Ohio river, and nearly all of them 

 appearing from two to six weeks earlier than the dates 

 "iven in Gray's Manual. In the small portion of these 

 counties which I have been able to examine, I have 

 observed— exclusive of forest trees, grasses, sedges and 

 mosses— 4.')0 species, representing 2iK) genera and 90 

 orders. 



The region m.ay be conveniently divided, for the 

 purposes of these notes, into the hills and blutfs, the 

 creek bottoms, and the Mississippi bottoms, each of 

 whicl» has £1 more or less characteristic flora. Upon the 



