330 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. %mi. No. 56? 



other places of a like tiattire. It appears like an intro- 

 duced species, and I suspected it was V. arvensis. So far 

 as I know, it has not been previously recorded here, 

 and there is no specimen in the herbarium of the 

 botanical society. The other specimen also referred to 

 r arvemis was collected in the Allegheny Mountains 

 near Altoona, and differed from the first in the size, 

 shape and abundance of the leaves. It was growing on 

 a hillside in the woods, far from any house or road and 

 at some distance from cultivated ground, so that it 

 appeared to be indigenous. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



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 the character of the iournal. 



Feigned Death in Snakes. 



It was I who suggested to Professor Kilpatrick the 

 possibility of the apparent biting of itself by Eelerodon 

 being in mimicry of that which was claimed for the 

 rattlesnake. But I do not at all know that the rattlesnake 

 has any such habit. I have often heard it from the 

 herdsmen on our prairies in an early day concerning 

 -our short Massassaugas, Caudisona tergemina (Cope). I 

 have repeatedly heard persons say that they had taken 

 a small switch and teased a rattlesnake till, in its anger, 

 it would bite itself and die. But after reading Dr. 

 Mitchell's statement that he had often injected the 

 snake's own poison into its circulation without any ap- 

 parent effect, I grew skeptical on the suicide theory. 

 Professor Kilpatrick's narration to me recalled the 

 traditions, and, knowing that this spread-head often 

 mimicked the ways of poisonous kinds, it occurred to 

 me this might be another manifestation. Cannot some- 

 one inform us whether it be true that any of the 

 Crotalidae have, or pretend to have, this suicidal habit, 

 and can we not have some further statements from 

 herpologists as to whether in any serpent its poison is 

 fatal to itself or its fellows? Analogy would indicate 

 that it might be. Bee stings are fatal to each other, and 

 it seems well established that scorpions commit suicide 

 by their own stings under certain circumstances of 

 torment. 



Apropos of the conduct of Professor Kilpatrick's 

 snakes being a ''faint, instead of a feint," it is perhaps 

 well known that Dr. C. C. Abbott, in "Rambles About 

 Home," claims that the similar conduct of the opossum 

 is really a spasm from fear (rendering the creature un- 

 conscious), instead of a shamming of death. 



J. N. Baskett. 



Mexico, Mo. 



A Peculiar Flora in Chicago. 



While in Chicago last July I spent some little time in 

 botanizing in the vicinity of the Fair grounds, and I was 

 much struck with the peculiar flora of two vacant lots in 

 that neighborhood. One of these is at the corner of 

 Oglesby avenue and Sixty-second street, and is very 

 dry with the grass cropped short by grazing animals. 

 Here I was surprised to find the ground covered with 

 Potentilla anserina, which I have never found previously 

 in any but very marshy places. Indeed, until I had 

 analyzed it, I could scarcely believe that it was not some 



other species. The plants were all very dwarfed, 

 presumably from their unfavorable environment, but 

 otherwise agreed perfectly with P. anserina from other 

 localities. On the edge of this same lot was a thriving 

 specimen of Habenaria leucophaea, also a plant of the 

 marshes, and so out of place here. I am inclined to 

 think, therefore, that before the extension of the city so 

 far south these lots were marshes and the plants are but 

 survivors of the former flora. 



In the other lot, however, at the corner of Woodlawn 

 avenue and Fifty-ninth street, the peculiar flora does 

 not admit of as easy an explanation. In this field the 

 soil was rich and moist (though nowhere wet) and cov- 

 ered with a good growth of grass and sedges. Here I 

 found several specimens of Galium boreale ; and Calamin- 

 tha nuUallii was abundant. The former, according to 

 Gray, is an inhabitant of the "rockj^ banks of streams," 

 while the latter occurs only on "wet limestone river 

 banks." So unlikely a place did it seem for Calamintha 

 that I sent a specimen to the Gray Herbarium at Cam- 

 bridge, but Mr. Fernald, who very kindly examined the 

 plant, assures me that my identification was correct. He 

 suggests also that the species may have been introduced 

 in that place, but I must say that this seems improbable 

 to me. Perhaps some one more familiar with the botany 

 of Cook County may be able to explain the occurrence 

 of these two species in such an unlooked-for locality. 

 Hubert Lyman Clark. 



Pittsburgh, Pa. 



Eskimo Traces in New York. 



Sir Daniel Wilson once suggested a connection 

 between the Eskimo and the Iroquois, founded on 

 physical structure. The habits of the two were so dif- 

 ferent, however, that this is probable only in a slight 

 degree. That the Eskimo once roamed where the Iro- 

 quois afterwards lived seems certain. If the Northmen 

 reached the shores of New England, the Eskimo must 

 even then have dwelt along the coast, and archaeology 

 makes it probable that a large part of the Middle States 

 had not then been occupied by the so-called Indian 

 tribes. 



The recent collections made far north have been 

 especially interesting to me as bearing upon some relics 

 found in New York and Canada, and in a less degree in 

 New England. The one-sided harpoon of Alaska differs 

 in no respect from those which the Mohawks and Onon- 

 dagas used three htmdred years ago. The half-circular 

 slate knives found all through the territory mentioned 

 are like those of the Eskimo women now. The Ninth 

 Report of the Bureau of Ethnology contains other sug- 

 gestive material. Through central New York, in por- 

 tions of the Province of Ontario, in Canada, and along 

 Lake Champlain occur double-edged polished slate 

 knives, arrow-like in form, almost identical with those 

 on page 151 of the report and some following pages. 

 Rarely have I seen them single-edged, and, as they 

 usually occur near streams, I have thought they were 

 used in opening and cleaning fish. Almost all those I 

 have seen in New York and Canada have slight barbs, 

 a feature which seems lacking in the Eskimo knife. 

 With us they are made of various kinds of slate, and I 

 have one very broad form of red slate. Usually they 

 are dark grey. The flat tong is always bevelled, and 

 often notched. A very delicate and beautiful one I 

 recently figured from the Oneida River. 



If the Iroquois used combs at all before European 

 contact, they were very simple, but some of their later 

 examples remind one of those of the Eskimo under sim- 

 ilar circumstances. The wooden and horn spoons are 

 also suggestive, the broad wooden spoon occurring 



