.116 



A Few General Remarks 



The outstanding features of this new strain of Viola are: 



1. It produces variable flowers which exemplify the connecting 

 link between a 5-merous and a 4-nierous flower. 



2. It embodies the phenomenon of peloria which changes 

 the flower from an unsymmetrical one to one that is perfectly 

 symmetrical. 



3. With respect to (i) and (2) it remains uniform under great 

 differences of environment. 



4. It apparently breeds true to type both vegetatively and 

 sexually. 



5. Because of (4) it might be truly termed a mutation. 

 Other generations of this interesting strain of violets will 



be grown and reported on as time will permit but since the seeds 

 are borne in capsules of cleistogamous flowers they might be 

 considered the result of self-fertilization and therefore succeeding 

 generations might not differ materially from the first unless the 

 strain throws other mutations. 



AN EXCURSION TO MOUNTAIN LAKE, VIRGINIA 



By William Alphonso Murrill 



Our party of six left Blacksburg, Virginia, for Mountain Lake 

 at seven o'clock on' the morning of July 22, 1920, prepared to 

 spend the day. Clear weather had succeeded a season of rain 

 and the hay-makers were busy in the fields along the road as 

 we passed, while the oat crop stood ready for harvesting. Nature 

 had not been stingy in any particular; everything planted in 

 gardens and fields was growing and yielding most bountifully, 

 while the last raspberries and dewberries and the first of the 

 blackberries indicated an unusual abundance of wild food. 



The first range we climbed and crossed was Brush Mountain, 

 whose southern flank was covered with stunted pitch pine, 

 bracken fern, sweet fern, and a wealth of Coreopsis seniifolia, 

 with attractive yellow flowers and leaves arranged in whorls of 

 sixes. From Brush Mountain to Gap Mountain was only a 

 few minutes' ride, across a narrow stretch of sterile land very 



