1887. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 297 
hardly nectariferous base: mature carpels longer than stipe: seeds 
oblong. 
LACINIATA Leaves trifoliolate: lateral leaflets comparatively 
short patintnlatac all ovate in outline, nearly 3-parted, with divisions 3-7- 
cleft or incised and dentate, mostly acute: sepals linear-attenuate, and 
filiform-attenuate petals nearly of the nextspecies: mature carpels longer 
Proc. Am 
and Watson, Bot. Calif, ii. 427. This we have only from Oregon and 
Northwest California, collected by E. Hall, Cusick, Henderson, G. R. Vasey, 
Rattan. Only Cusick has sent it in blossom 
. ASPLENIFOLIA Salisb. Leaves pilmately 5-foliolate ; with leaflets all 
slender-petiolulate, ovate-oblong in outline, and pinnately divided or 
parted, lower divisions short petiolulate and upper ¢ confluent: sepils and 
petals filiform-: attenuate, nearly equal; the latter with thickened concave 
nectary between middle and base: mature carpels shorter than re stipe. 
We have this only from British Columbia and Alaska.—ASa GRA 
Dredge for Chara. —Last year, in giving directions for the cation 
of Characez, I recommended a modification of a dredge used by 
Nordstedt, of Sweden. [am constrained to say that « dredge more like 
his original one is better for deep water, and that the one here illustrated 
answers perfectly every purpose, provided one 
carries, as I now do, a small rake for shallower 
water. This dredge consists of a disk of lead 
about three inches in diameter and three-fourths 
ofan inch thick, in the edge of which are im- 
bedded about ten hooks. I have had them bent 
backward in order to furnisha kind of “shoulder” 
to give ahaa strength in case of catching in an 
obstruction., These will firmly hold a boat, or 
vertically, an iron rod about a foot long, which i, % 
has a ring in the upper end, for a line, and which : 
is allowed to project about three inches below the disk. It takes apart 
readily by means of a nut and screw on the rod, and packs ina small box. 
It weighs about two and a half pounds, and is made by Flynn & Doyle, 
Bantam, Conn., at a cost of four dollars.—T. F. ALLEN. 
OPEN LETTERS. 
Vitality of seeds. 
ye int w building of Franklin College 
mig a the excavation for the ne u - wait wae 
last ial was hauled u din as 
pon the agate an 
noticed bi ca soil was placed a great many 8 ns of ase = 
(P hytolacea fecaniira) were growing. The north building was erec 
