1887. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. III 
trees; the effect on the appearance and durability of timber when cut 
in different directions. Each student wrote an essay on some topic in 
keeping with those above named.—W. J. Brat, Agricultural College, Mich- 
igan, March 23, 1887. 
Scoliopus Hallii Watson.—I collected this little Liliaceous plant last 
week in fine flower. As the floral characters have never been made out, 
it may be as well to record the following amended description : 
Rhizoma very short or none: leaves oval-elliptical to narrowly lanceo- 
late, at length 4-6 inches long, not brown punctate, sessile : pedicels (2-8) 
4-6 inches long, slender ; outer perianth segments lanceolate or oblanceo- 
late, 3-4 lines long, a line and a half wide, narrowed toa claw below, yellow- 
ish green speckled with red outside, striped with dark purple inside, bent 
at aright angle in the middle so that the upper halfis spreading de flexed ; 
the inner ones are linear-spatulate, shorter than the outer ones, not bent in 
the middle, but incurved and conivent over the stigmas: stamens 1-14 
lines long, about half as long as the red speckled ovary.—On Silver creek, 
about a mile above the town of Silverton, at the late Elihu Hall’s original. 
locality. In fine flower March 20,—THomas HoweEL. 
Solidago bicolor L., and var. concolor Torr. & Gray.—While botan- 
izing along the western side of the Green Mountains, in Vermont, last 
season (1886), I gave particular attention to the golden rods, and collected 
many interesting things ; the most interesting being the above mentioned 
forms growing from the same root. I found S. bicolor L, very abundant, 
at middle elevations, but saw comparatively little of the var. concolor, 
except in the town of Ludlow, where both forms were in profusion. The 
remarkable specimen in question consisted of four stalks ; two being typi- 
cal white-rayed bicolor, and the other two being none the less typical yel- 
low-rayed concolor—F. H. Kxow.ton, Washington, D. C. March 31, 1887. 
How humblebees extract nectar from Mertensia Virginica DC.—In 
the October number of the GazerrE I recorded an observation of the 
manner in which humblebees extract the sweets from the flowers of Phy- 
sostegia Virginana Benth. without entering the corollas, by making a slit 
at the base with the mandibles. In the April number Mr. G. von Ingen 
records a similar observation in regard to the common Péetunias. To-day 
I observed a similar habit on Mertensia Virginica DC. It appears that the 
insect is well up to the work of splitting corollas; it is done quickly and 
easily, and if the old slit, made at the former visit, is not easily found, a 
new one is made, I found corollas that had as many as three parallel 
slits near the base. As this is near the beginning of the botanizing sea- 
son, it would be well if botanists generally would keep this in mind, and 
at the end of the season record their notes. We might thus learn how 
general this habit is. It would add to the interest if the insects, thus en- 
Saged, were captured, and their specific names published with the notes.. 
—J. Scuneck, Mt. Carmel, Ill. 
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