36 
gill-fungi. The latter are also represented by a collection of 
about 60 excellent photographs secured by Professor Harper 
some years ago at Berkeley. 
Among recent visitors at the Garden were Dr. Charles Brooks, 
of New Hampshire State Agricultural College, Dr. Mel. T. Cook, 
of Rutgers College, New Jersey, and J. M. Greenman, assistant 
curator in the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago. 
In house no. 4, conservatory range I, on a post near one of the 
columns, is a woody vine, now in bloom, known to botanists 
as Norantea guianensis. This is growing vigorously, its long 
rambling branches reaching out in all directions for support, 
following its native habit of growing on trees. On the end of 
some of these branches is a long inflorescence, looking at a dis- 
tance like a thick red rod. A closer inspection, however, will 
reveal that this is made up of numerous rather insignificant 
flowers, borne mainly upon the upper side of the axis, each pedicel 
bearing at its apex a pendulous body over an inch long. This is 
attached by a short slender stalk, the remaining portion being a 
curved hollow cylinder. This organ is technically known as a 
bract, and it is these bracts which make the inflorescence so 
conspicuous and showy. Their use to the plant is problematic. 
This vine is a native of Guiana and northern Brazil, and is 
one of the fourteen species comprising the genus Norantea, all 
with the exception of one species on the island of Guadeloupe, 
confined to tropical continental America, the greater number 
being peculiar to Brazil. They are either trees or vines with 
spirally arranged leaves. The flowers are inconspicuous, as 
compared with the large showy bracts, which are either saccate 
or spoon-shaped. 
The genus Norantea is one of five genera comprising the 
Marcgraviaceae, a family of plants confined to the tropics of 
America. Most of the other species belong to the genus Marc- 
gravia, also mainly confined to the tropics of continental America. 
Of the sixteen known species three are found in the West Indies. 
One of these, M. oligandra, is confined to Cuba, another, M. 
