255 



Occasionally a few species of Myxomycetes were found in vary- 

 ing abundance, but usually they furnished a barren collecting 

 ground. On one morning these logs everywhere along the river 

 were found to be thickly covered with CojnatricJia laxa Rost. and 

 Enerthenema elegans Bowm. 



An endless amount of both species could have been gathered. 

 Other occasions were apparently just as favorable, but at no other 

 time did either species appear during that summer or the next. 



It is easy to understand from an occurrence like this that a 

 species may be present in large quantities in the plasmodial state 

 and still fail to be observed even by a careful collector. Such a 

 plant as Cribraria violacea, which has been detected at half a 

 dozen stations stretching from Germany to Illinois, is in all prob- 

 ability general in its occurrence, but for the reasons given has 

 failed as yet to be widely detected. 

 AsHEviLLE School, 



ASHEVILLE, N. C. 



A TRAGEDY OF THE FOREST* 



In the forests of tropical regions, where vegetable growth is 

 rank and the resulting strife for supremacy very keen, many 

 plants are forced to find a home upon the trunks and branches of 

 trees. Among these are the greater part of the orchids and 

 bromeliads, and many of the aroids, ferns, and hepatics of these 

 regions, which thus often clothe the trunks and branches with a 

 living mantle. Such, however, are harmless, for they work no 

 injury to the trees which furnish them a home. But there are 

 others which are not of this harmless nature. These have their 

 beginnings as weak epiphytes, and from guests rapidly develop 

 into masters, finally destroying tfie tree which gave them friendly 

 shelter when young. 



If you ever visit a tropical forest, seek for some of these. It 

 will not take a long hunt to find one. Look in the crotch of 

 some tree or on the stump left by some broken limb, or wherever 

 a bit of humus has collected to furnish a foothold for the seed, 

 and you may see a small plant, perhaps but a few inches or a foot 



* Illustrated with the aid of the McManes fund. 



