504 The Botanical Gazette. [December, 
Then it would come to rest at any point, there seeming not to be any 
choice in the location. Amoeboid movements would begin as de- 
scribed above for the cell which was first seen passing through the 
ostiolum. The extended process would feel about over the inner 
surface of the wall for the desired opening. After a few moments of 
vain search, if it did not happen to be located at the ostiolum, it 
would assume the rounded form again, dart violently away and repeat 
the circular gyrations. Frequently as it swept across the field it 
seemed to be of a somewhat flattened form, but this may have been 
due to slight amoeboid movement during the swarming, produced by 
the unequal pressure in the water encountered in turning suddenly at 
a different angle. Again it would come to rest and by amoeboid 
movements search for the ostiolum, and, failing, would again swarm 
violently about for another period. This would be kept up until the 
cell happened to rest close by the ostiolum when by amoeboid move- 
ments the search would be rewarded by finding the passage, when the 
issuance would be slowly made.—Gro. F. ATKINSON, Cornell Univer- 
sity, Ithaca, 
_ The wild rice of Minnesota.—In a recent conversation with Dr. El- 
liott Coues, the well known naturalist, who had just returned from a 
visit to the head-waters of the Mississippi, some interesting informa- 
tion with regard to wild rice was brought out and in response to my 
request for some written notes on the subject Dr. Coues forwarded 
the appended account of the plant. When it is known that the 32,- 
coo Ojibwa Indians depend upon the native wild rice of northern 
Minnesota as their staple article of vegetable food, the importance of © 
this plant from an economic stand point is at once apparent, and these sea 
facts are suggestive of its further commercial utilization FREDERICK _ “ay 
V. CovitLE, Washington, D. C. : 
» wis - m, Z 7 = 54 > 
Se ae ee ka et Seen et a Kane 
WasuHincTon, D. C., Oct. 28, 1894- 
Dear Sir: 
Reletring to our conversation of yesterday, on the wild rice or Zi- 
zania aquatica, 1 was somewhat surprised to be informed that “there 
which I made during my recent canoe-voyage to the sources of 4 
notes on th river. . “compy with pleasure a ne request for some cr 
tes on this s — 
Wild ri eectipares: . a staple food-product in the earliest historicat 
accounts we have of the various Indian tribes which then In newer us 
northern Wiscdntis and Minnesota. One of these is in fact n re” 
from this circumstance. But it would be a great mistake to presume 
that the case is entirely differe ice continues to be a staple 
he reserva 
