1889.] BOTANICAL GAZETTE, 227 



ing is furnished by the tree here called the cedar. It is light, 

 straight-grained and red at the heart like our North Ameri- 

 can savin. Strangely enough, however, it belongs to the 

 mahogany family (Cedrela Brasiliensis), but, unlike its con- 

 gener, it is a soft wood comparatively. 

 Asuncion, Paraguay \ 



BRIEFER ARTICLES. 



Abnormal roses.— Freaks are not rare among roses. In the Gazette, 

 Vol. IX, p. 177, W. W. Bailey mentions "a garden rose in which, in the 

 center of the rosette of petals, was a perfect but unopened bud." E. B. 

 Harger, Vol. X, p. 214, notes that "on a common double climbing red 

 rose" appeared "a sprout on which grows a whorl of four bracts subtend- 

 ing a cluster of ordinary petals, giving the appearance of a stem growing 

 through the center of the rose." Further examples in this line of varia- 

 tion may be worth noting. A rose-bush on our campus has for the past 

 five years produced only "single" roses and in scanty quantity. Last 

 year the plant was divided at the roots into six parts and transplanted. 

 Early in June, a little more than a year having passed, there appeared an 

 abundance of dark red, velvety, double roses which challenged the ad- 

 miration of every passer-by. Many of these roses exhibited a peculiar 

 freak. One-third of the whole number showed variations. On one bush 

 were six or seven with the stems produced through the center of the 

 flower. In one case the stem developed two perfect expanded leaves, 

 two leaf buds and a flower bud, all immediately above the original rose, 

 whirh was itself large and beautiful. In another instance the result is a 

 "head" of five unopened flower-buds, each showing calyx, corolla and pis- 

 tils. Other specimens show one, two, three and four of these "secondary" 

 flowers above the roses proper. The principal flower in each case has its 

 sepals and petals in natural condition ; the stamens wanting or appearing 

 as modified petals, while the pistils are entirely replaced by the new stem 

 growth which rises an inch or more above the primary rose.— C. B. At- 

 well, Evanston, III. 



Dr. A. B. Ghiesbrecht. 1 — The Mexican journal, La Naturaleza, has 

 published a graceful tribute from the pen of a native botanist to the ser- 

 vices of a Belgian explorer of the flora of his adopted country. For the 

 career of a traveling naturalist Dr. Ghiesbrecht was well equipped physi- 

 cally and by preliminary studies at the universities of Brussels and Paris. 

 Associated with Linden and Funk in the commission appointed by the 

 Belgian government in 1837 to investigate the b otany and zoology of 



* Vida y Trabajos del Naturalista Belga AugustoB. Ghiesbrecht, Exploradorde Mexico, 

 por el Sr. D. Jose" N. Rovirosa. 



