68 



near Alba, Jasper County, Missouri, on April 20, 1913, and sent 

 to me by Mr. B. F. Bush for identification. 



This plant is probably to be referred to the family Aizoaceae, 

 or as treated in the Synoptical Flora i : 256 the Ficoideae, and to 

 the tribe Aizoideae of that family. In many respects it seems 

 to come closer to the genus Cypselea than to any other North 

 American genus. It differs markedly in the absence of stipules 

 and style and in the capsule not being circumscissile. The other 

 genera of the tribe in question, found in this country, are succu- 

 lent plants with circumscissile capsules and cornute calyx-lobes- 



The tribe Mollugineae of the same family characterized by a 

 calyx divided nearly or quite to the base, and represented in the 

 United States by two genera having 3-celled ovaries, is less closely 

 related to our plant. Nor can our plant be considered an 

 apetalous representative of the Alsinaceae, as the sepals in that 

 family are distinct or very nearly so. It seems in fact to represent 

 a well-characterized genus. 



New York 



SHORTER NOTES 



Bergson and the Biometrical Method. The controversy 

 over the definiteness (and fixity) of morphological types is no 

 longer of supreme interest to the present-day taxonomists- 

 But the exact status of the biometrical method is still under 

 discussion; in that connection, at least, it may be interesting to 

 note two references from a recent book on philosophy, Bergson's 

 Creative Evolution. They at once support and illumine the 

 biometrical method. The first (P. 13) states that "vital prop- 

 erties are never entirely realized, though always on the way to 

 become so; they are not so much states as tendencies." Because 

 of this we have the second statement (P. 116), "the group must 

 not be defined by the possession of certain characters but by its 

 tendency to emphasize them." 



Jean Broadhurst 



