ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



317 



persons formed thomselves into a Botiinical 

 Society, (loinor me tlie honor to make me their 

 president. Wlieii I left we numbered a dozen. 

 I'rof. Beal is the vice-president, and lie is doin<>- 

 much in Chicago to interest liis pnpils in the 

 study of Botany. » * * » yy^ spent live 

 weeks in the Tiortli of Afiica, which is one grand 

 flower garden, and wislied we could lengthen 

 tlie weeks into months. At Algiers we made 

 the acquaintance of Signer Durande, an Italian, 

 who has lived in /Vfricii for twenty years, and 

 has been one of the most important contributoi-s 

 to the " Botany of Algeria," now publishing by 

 the French Government. But, like all works 

 brought out by government, it progresses very 

 slowly, and will be so expensive it will benefit 

 but few. For years Mr. Durande has done what 

 [ would like to have you do, and what will, I 

 think, do much to excite interest in the study 

 of Xatural History, particularly among women. 

 Something akin to it was initiated long ago in 

 Salem, by the Director of the Institute, and has 

 been so successful that nearly every person in 

 Salem knows something of Natural Science. 

 One day in the week Mr. Durande makes an 

 excursion to some place in the vicinity of Al- 

 giers, taking with him such students of the 

 Medical College with which he is connected as 

 choose to accompany him, and gentlemen and 

 ladies living in the city or strangers sojourning 

 there. We had the pleasure of joining two of 

 these excursions; one to Blida, whilher wo 

 went by lail, and one to Cape Matifou, to 

 which we drove. Our ])arty was made u|) of 

 Danes, French, Germans, English and Ameri- 

 cans. At Blida, one of the loveliest spots im- 

 aginable, perfectly embowered in orange groves, 

 we explored the Botanical Garden (the like of 

 which is not in all America, and you must re- 

 collect that so far as anything of this sort goes 

 Algeria is but forty years old), several private 

 gardens, and a wild ravine whose rocks were 

 covered with mosses, ferns and lycopodia, Mr. 

 Durande telling us names and explaining affini- 

 ties, modes of culture, &c., &c., in the most 

 charming way. At Cape Matifou we gathered 

 flowers, one gentleman and lady collected shells, 

 some sketched the ruins of the Roman oily of 

 Ilusconia, which sent a bishop to the first Chris- 

 tian council ; and we had a most enjoyable <lay, 

 to say nothing of the profit we derived from the 

 teachings of Sig. Durande, and the conversation 

 of intelligent peojile from dillerent pans of (he 

 world. 



NOTES PR0.1I COltllESl'ONDENTS. 



A Natural Graft Hybrid of (Juercua alha ami (J. 

 tiiictiiria. — 1 was reconlly inlbrniod of a reinarkiible 

 "Indian graft of a I!lacU dak on a Wliilc Oak," in tfic 

 iicigliliorliooclofl'fU'rsliurg-, III., an<l liaving the almost 

 incredible story from good autliority, I was induced to 

 visit tlie locality to learn if it was reaily true. To my 

 great regret I found tlic tree prostrated by a storm, ap- 

 parently about two years ago, anil the top i)rlncipally 

 hauled off lor fuel, but that portion where the union 

 was formed, and the smaller iiortions of the limbs of llie 

 hybrid were left on the ground. The story of the In- 

 dian graft 1 found to lie eurrtait in the ueighborliooti, 

 jini} nuuibers of people knew all about it, It appears 



tliat tlie imion was formed in a portion of tlie fop of llie 

 White Oak aliout tifty-five feet from the ground, ami, 

 judging from the layers of wood, about "') years ago. 

 It seems that the Hlaek ()aU {Quercue tinctoria, for sueli 

 it really aiijieared to be) liad fallen into the White Oak 

 — as was evident from the remains of a decayed limb 

 and the positions of growlli— and hail by some niiae- 

 eountable means nulled with it, and bad grown from the 

 point of union a laige branehing limb, more than twice 

 the diameter of the limb of the White OaU ui)on whicli 

 it was attached. Xo remains of a tree of Quercut tiiu- 

 ttina was now in reach of the Wliite Oak upon which 

 this remarkable graft was growing, and the most pro- 

 bable explanation cil the 7no(/«« operandi is that (Juercim 

 tlndvria, when falling, bad dashed a rather large limb 

 into the tork ol the Whiti' Oak top with force enough to 

 remove tlie bark from both species, and being so lirnily 

 pressed by the fork that a union was etl'ected. 



Uut what will most interest the botanist is, that the 

 graft clearly shows hybridism. Of course no leaves 

 could now be had, but the wood, bark and buds ajipear 

 about e<iuully to belong to both .species, Q. alia showing 

 strongly in the smaller limbs, and the rough bark of Q. 

 tuidmiix most fully develojied at the point of union and 

 grading to the smaller limbs, where it may be said to 

 insensibly disappear. This interesting and remarkable 

 production may be recoided as adding another to the 

 few known graft hybrids in the vegetable kingdom. 



Athens, Ills, E. Hall. 



p. S. — Tell your correspondent, G. H. Frencli, that I 

 will "go the cider" that his remarkable tree (descriluul 

 in the .June number) is the Kentucky Cott'ec tree i^Oym- 

 nocladtts Caitadcnuis). 



Botanical Notes. —Mii. Enrroit: In complying 

 with your request for botanical notes from tfiis portion 

 of the State, I will conline myself, for the present, to 

 the counties of Union and .Jackson— a region not less 

 interesting to the botanist lor the mimberand peculiarity 

 of its species, than to the tourist for the beauty of its 

 scenery. 



It embraces a range of nearly 2,fi00 vertical feet of 

 geological strata; and, as the drift formation is generally 

 absent, the soil is made by di'composiiion of the under- 

 lying rocks, and varies widely in character accoriliiig to 

 the rocks from which it is formed and upon which it rests. 



From the Jlissi.ssippi bottoms upon its western border 

 —but little above the level of the Ohio at Cairo— it rises 

 to tiie Cobden bills, among the highest in the State; 

 and its surface \ arles from the lagoons and swamps of 

 the former to Hut rocky and precipitous bluffs of the liill 

 country in the west. Its southerly situation gives it a 

 genial climate, and the great comparative height to 

 which portions of it are elevated protects them from 

 latit and early frosts, t'onseciucntly we tiiid here an un- 

 usual variety of species, many of them not known else- 

 where north of the Ohio river, and nearly all of tliem 

 appearing from two to six weeks earlier than tfie ilates 

 given in Oray's Manual, In the small portion of these 

 counties which I have been able to examine, I have 

 oliscrvcd- exi'lusive of forest trees, grasses, sedges and 

 mosses — 150 species, representing 'I'M genera and iK) 

 orders. 



. The region may be conveniently diviiled, for the 

 purposes of these notes, into the hills and blull's, the 

 creek bottoms, and tlie Mis.sissippi tiottoins, each of 

 which has a more or less characteristic llora. Upon tlie 



