1886.| BOTANICAL GAZEPTE. 41 
The tumble-weed of the West.—In this plant we have an excellent illus- 
tration of the effect of climate upon the physical development of the plant body. 
In the east it is the familiar Amarantus albus, and so far as 1 have observed 
never shows any tendency to take upon itself the “tumbling ” habit, but grows 
into an irregularly branching plant which remains fixed to the ground long af- 
ter it dies at the close of the season. Upon the plains and prairies of the west, 
however, it grows into a compact plant, with stout curving branches, of such 
length and curvature as to give to the whole an approximately spherical form. 
away the whole goes rolling, tumbling and bounding over the ground, often for 
miles. In Coulter’s Rocky Mountain Botany, by an accidental transposition of 
type, the related A. blitoides is called the “tumble-weed.” This latter species 
is, however, a prostrate plant, reminding one of the familiar purslane, and does 
not take the spherical form necessary to the “tumble-weed.” 
It may be interesting to note in this connection that upon the steppes of 
Russia, north of the Black Sea, an entirely different plant becomes a veritable 
“tumble-weed.” Henfrey,in The Vegetation of Europe, thus describes it: ‘‘One 
curious dant of the thistle tribe has attracted the notice of most travellers, 
‘wind witch,’ as it is is called by the German colonists, or ‘leap-the-tield,’ 
the Russian name may be translated. It forms a large globular mass of light 
wiry branches interlaced together, and in autumn decays off at the root, the 
upper part drying up. It is then at the mercy of the autumn blasts, and it is 
said that thousands of them may sometimes be seen coursing over the plain, 
rolling, dancing and leaping over the slight inequalities, often looking at a dis- 
tance like a troop of wild horses.” 
On the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., the wild Indigo (Baptisia tinc- 
toria) grows into a globular form, breaks off at the root in the autumn, an 
tumbles about much like the genuine “ tumble-weed ” of the west. 
. E. Bessey. 
EDITORIAL. 
Mucu HAs BEEN SAID in the Gazerre about teaching botany, and it may 
be thought that the chief end of botanical study is teaching, but much as we 
would exalt the teacher’s profession there is another work for the professional 
botanist. If teaching botany is all, what is to become of the science? 
to teach the same things over and over again, with an occasional new inspira- 
botanist is almost of necessity a teacher only, with his time fully occupied in 
the drudgery of the laboratory and lecturing upon the very rudiments of his 
c 
perennial succession of teachers, then has all our teaching been in vain. What 
We now need is endowment for botanical research, that our country and our 
botanists may do themselves credit. This does not necessarily mean a great 
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