ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



223 



Tlie fertile ones i)ro(luce flat, twisted pods, a foot 

 or more in leiigtli. and an inch and a lialf broad, 

 and containing- twenty or more pretty large, flat 

 seeds. Tlie pinnate leaves, four to six inches 

 long, are made up of about ten pairs of small 

 ohiong leaflets, which are nearly entire on the 

 margin. The pods contain a sweetish pul)). 

 which is said to be eni))loyed in some of the 

 Southern States in fermenting a kind of beer. 



The tree is a vigorous grower, with a i)rctty 

 dense, tough-grained wood, which makes excel- 

 lent fuel. It is not nuich in request as an orna- 

 mental tree, perhaps on account of its formidable 

 fhorns, Imt has been employed to make hedges, 

 and by some is thought to be superior tor that 

 purpose to the Osage. It has also been reconi- 

 mended for timber plantations. 



THE WOODY COMPOSIT-K. 



Perhaps no family of plants is more numerous 

 in species than thai of the so-called Compound 

 flowers {Compositm) . 



In all that part of the country lying east of 

 the Mississippi there is not a shrub or tree be- 

 longing to this family. Some kinds, as various 

 species of Sunflower (Ile/ianthus), produce 

 annually a large and heavy growth, but it inva- 

 riably dies down to the ground at the approach 

 of winter. The roots of many are perennial, 

 but nothing above ground survives a season's 

 growth. 



It is not so, however, with several kinds of 

 Comjjositw in the region of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and particularly iu the great basins of the 

 western slope. These are various species of 

 Artemesia and Linosyris, all generally classed 

 under the name of Sage bi-usli ; and they form a 

 prominent and distinctive feature of the Plains, 

 and in some measure by their woody growth 

 compensate for the absence of trees. 



The largest and most common Sage brush is 

 the Artemesia tridentata, Nutt. It is very vari- 

 able iu size; on dry upland plains not usually 

 over two or three feet high, with a trunk two 

 or three inches iu diameter. In valleys and 

 moist ground it often attains a height of eight 

 to ten feet, with a thickness of as many inches. 

 Usually there are a number of stems spreading 

 out from one root. The wood is light and 

 l)orous, somewhat resembling cedar, and it 

 burns readily even in a green state, as also do 

 the leaves, with a pleasant balsamic fragrance. 

 It is the main dependence, for fuel, of immi- 

 grants and travellers on the Plains west of the 

 mountain ranges. It has no resemblauce to our 

 cultivated Sage-plant, except in its fragrance, 



and belongs to an entirely dift'erent family. Its 

 annual growth is very slow. We have often 

 cut bushes of moderate size which indicated 

 forty or fifty years' age, and undoubtedly many 

 of them continue to grow for a century. 



Another species, the Artemesia cana, Pursh.. 

 is seldom found away from rich moist valleys. 

 It scuds up more nuinerous stalks from oiu! 

 root, /. e., it grows in bushy clumps of twenty 

 or thirty stalks, which are each about an inch 

 in diameter. 



Still another species is the Artemesia arhits- 

 cula, Nutt. This is very dwarf in habit, seldom 

 growing over a foot high, but often covering 

 hundreds of acres on low mountain slopes. 



The bushes of Litiosi/rus are quite similar in 

 general habit to those of the Artemesia, but do 

 not grow as large. There are also several spe- 

 cies of that genus. 



NEW liOOK. 



THE AMERICAN lioTANIST AND FI-OKIST. Hv 

 Ai-PHONSO Wood. A.M.. uiitlior ol the Class Book 

 of Botiiny, &i'. A. S. l!;niies & Co., New York and 

 Cliicago . 



This is a haiidsoine, wcll-pnnted volume of ne.irly 

 (iOO-piigcs, possessing some features of great mei'it. The 

 part devoted to structural and pliy.siological botany is 

 an example of great condensation, and is profusely 

 illustrated. The definitions are generally very clear 

 and concise. In some instances, we think, technical 

 names are unnecessarily employed, as for instance, 

 pleurenchymu instead oi fhrous tissue, and trachyentliyina 

 instead of vascular tissue. Where Englisli words will 

 convey the idea intended, we tliink they should be em- 

 ployed in preference to foreign ones; thus heail is a 

 better word than capiluhim. and cluster is to be preferred 

 to (jlomerule. etc . 



The portion of the volume devoted to descriptive 

 botany professes to record the characters of nearly 4.000 

 species of the native and cultivated plants of the I'nited 

 .states east of the Mississippi river. The introduction 

 of greenhouse exotics is, we think, carried too fai'; for 

 instance, wc have given us lilteeu species of Begonia, a 

 genus of which we have no native representative . As 

 an accommodation to city classes, whose aciiiniintance 

 with plants is mostly limited to the cultivated exotics, 

 this may be well enough, but for students wishing to 

 study the proiluctions of their own (country, we think 

 tliis matter is superlluiius, and that its space woulil lie 

 Ijotter tilled by expanding the descriptions of our native 

 plants. 



Ferns and Mossks. — The Ferns and Mosses 

 are beautiful objects and well deserving the 

 study of young ladies. Good specimens aie 

 finely adapted to parlor collections for ornament 

 as well as for study. There are about sixty 

 species of ferns in the Northern States. Many 

 of them are very delicate and beautiful. The 

 fructification is generally in small dots or lines 

 on tlie back of the leaves. 



