17 
this genus from other genera of the same family of plants. 
large number of original drawings illustrating the characters of 
the various species were shown. 
r. . Benedict showed specimens of teazels which had 
recently ica added to the economic collections. The teazel 
as a cultivated crop in America is one about which very little 
is known. The cultivated teazel (Dipsacus Gowns differs 
from the common wild teazel in having the bracts of the inflores- 
cence recurved and very stiff, patie hooks which are ae in 
“fulling,” ‘“‘knapping’’ or ‘gigging’? cloths on which such a 
surface is desired as is seen in serges, etc., as distinguished from 
worsteds, which are smoot 
st of the oa s siely of teazels is grown in Europe. The 
best aie of teazels, however, are grown in central New York, 
in the townships of Skaneateles and Marcellus of Onondaga 
County. Something about the soil makes the quality of these 
teazels especially good but efforts to introduce the culture into 
neighboring regions have been unsuccessful. There are, however, 
a few grown in Clackamas County, Oregon, by a former Skane- 
ateles man. 
Mr. Benedict also called attention to an unusual oak in the 
eastern part of the Garden, the identity of which is in doubt 
because of the fact that it resembles two of our common species. 
Its leaves are cut much like those of the common white oak but 
its acorns are borne on long stalks as in the swamp white oak. 
It seems to fruit sparingly, at least it has for the last two seasons, 
and as a result it has been impossible to secure acorns for culture. 
These were desired in order to determine whether the seedlings 
would throw any light on the identity of the parent tree. Su 
an experiment carried on with the seeds of another suspected 
hybrid proved conclusively the justice of the suspicion. 
Mr. E. W. Humphreys called attention to the fact that among 
the fossil plants that make up one of the small museum col- 
lections from the Triassic of Sonora, Mexico, is a specimen of 
than aueee interest. It is an equisetum (Schizoneura 
ee Zeiller) which does not seem to have been reporte 
m North eee before. The specimens described by Zeiller 
