18 



winter and during periods of drought it is entirely absent. My 

 records, extending at irregular intervals over two years (from 

 July, 1912, to June, 1914) report no trace of it as late as the 

 middle of May when the plant is in full flower, and this fact 

 gives good ground for the inference that it has no connection 

 with the process of fertilization. It is proper to state, however, 

 that the years to which my observations refer — 1912, 1913, 1914 

 — have been phenomenally dry in this section, and under normal 

 conditions the showing might have been different. 



While strictly a shade-loving and moisture-loving plant, the 

 galax ne^'er grows in swampy, undrained soil. It loves to be 

 near the water, but not in it, and is seldom found on level land. 

 Its favorite abode is on the steep, well-drained slopes of shady 

 ravines, along the high, shelving banks of mountain streams, and 

 in the crevices, or sometimes on the overhanging brow of rocky 

 cliffs. Though technically an evergreen, the leaves, except in 

 protected situations, turn a beautiful brownish red in winter 

 and persist on the rootstock until the latter part of May, when 

 they gradually shrivel up and give place to the young foliage 

 of the season. 



One of the popular names of the species, "beetle plant" 

 suggests the inquiry whether its odor ma}^ not possess attractions 

 for some "muck-raking" member of the beetle tribe whose visits 

 might be in some way beneficial to the plant. To determine 

 whether this was the case, I looked for beetles in every bed that 

 I visited. The result was that in one, I found a fragment of a 

 beetle shard and accidentally scared two of the insects out of a 

 clump of grass near b}^; while once, and only once, I came upon 

 a lonely tramp of a beetle running wildty about as if lost in a 

 jungle of galax. As this experience is not sufficient to build a 

 theory on, and the scent is apparently of no use in the process 

 of fertilization, the part it plays in the economy of the plant 

 has never yet, so far as I know, been explained. 

 Rome, Ga. 



