58 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [3a 
developed by the guest at the point of contact. The parasitisn 
appears to be complete, as the broomrape has no soil roots. 
, Perhaps the reason for the existence of some discrepancy and 
uncertainty as to the real host of some of the species of the broom 
rapes is due to the fact that they have not been kept under observation 
until the parasite had matured and withered. : 
The accompanying cut, made from a photograph and reduced 
one-fourth natural size, shows in a striking manner how the one 10 
of the ragweed has grown at the expense of the rest.—]. SCHNECK, 
Carmel, Il. 
BIDENS CONNATUS MUHLENBERG. 
IN THE year 1874 I found on lake Ruppin a form of Bidens, 
tinguishable at a glance from our two indigenous species (2. tripa 
and &. cernuus) by its basal bushy branching, the light green col 
its almost always undivided stem-leaves narrowed into a short pet 
Upon closer observation I found that the involucral bracts of the f 
heads were mostly in fives, always non-ciliate, and longer than 
tripartitus. Moreover the mature fruits always have four awns and | 
epidermis rather large warts (Hécker). ‘These peculiarities led me. 
characterize this form (in Verhandl. des bot. Ver. der Prov. Bran 
burg 1879 : 157-158) under the name JB. /ripartitus L. var.? fallax. 
Since then, chiefly on account of my bryological studies, the | 
has not come to my notice, until it turned up again in the autull 
1895 on raft-logs in our lake. Of course I recalled having seen 
remarked it many years before, but my especial notice of it int 
entirely escaped my memory; thus it happened that after a th 
investigation, laying more stress upon the specific value of th 
four-awned fruit, I published it (in Zsterr. bot. Zeitschrift 45 * 39? 
as B. decipiens. 
2g J) this the fruits are always smooth and usually two 
only Occasionally having a shorter median awn. They are; thus 
