53 



THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



THE 



BOTANIST 



a monthly devoted to birds and flowers. 



Joseph E. Blain, Publisher. 

 ^?VILLA.RD N. Olute, Editor. 



Articles on subjects of interest to Botanists and 

 Ornltholoffists solicited fi-ora all. 



TEHMS OP SOBSCUIPTION. 



One Subscription, six months, - - 80 cents. 

 One Subscription, one year, - - - 35 cents. 

 Single Copies, ------ 3 cents. 



Advertising rates made Isnown on application. 



If manuscript is accepted the author will be noti- 

 fied at once. Rejected manuscript will be returned 

 when accompanied by stamps. We reserve the 

 right to edit all manuscript. 



Address all communications to 



Joseph E Blain, Binghamton, N. Y. 



Vol. I. 



JULY, 1891. 



No. VII. 



This number begins the latter half of 

 our first volume. Six months ago the 

 magazine vs^as an experiment. We be- 

 gan its publication, hoping for, but 

 hardly expecting success. To-day we 

 find it solidly established with prospects 

 of a long life. Most of the difficulties 

 met with have been overcome, enabl- 

 ing us to greatly improve future issues. 

 In the meantime we hope our friends 

 will not relax their efforts to increase 

 our subscription list. The more sub- 

 scriptions we receive, the better mag- 

 azine we can give you. 



Many subscriptions expire with this 

 issue; if this i^aragraph is marked, yours 

 is among the number. If you want the 

 next number, you should renew at once 

 as all subscriptions are stopped as soon 

 as they expire. 



The geogTaphical locality has much to 

 do with the situation of plants. The 

 article on orchids in this number men- 

 tions the yellow Lady's slipper as grow- 



ing in swamps and wet woods. Here 

 they are found only in dry upland woods. 



Our readers will be interested in what 

 Miss Walter has to say in this number 

 about fragrant hepaticas. Although 

 these flowers are fragrant elsewhere, 

 they certainly are not so here. Those 

 who report finding fragrant flowers, 

 live in localities further south than ours 

 and it is possible that this may have 

 something to do with it. 



The report of the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture for 1890, contains an illustra- 

 tion of the orange hawkweed {Htera- 

 cium auriantiacum), a very pretty 

 plant, but one that is destined to give the 

 farmers much trouble. It is an immi- 

 grant from the Old World having been 

 in this county less than twenty years, 

 but is rapidly making itself at home. 

 When it gets a start in a field it soon 

 crowds everything else out, spreading 

 by runners as well as by seed. Lovers 

 of flowers will welcome this addition 

 to our flora, for few qf our midsummer 

 flowers are brighter. The heads are 

 nearly an inch in diameter, somewhat 

 resembling the dandelion in shape, and 

 are fiery-red shading to orange in the 

 centre. It has been in our county about 

 three years. 



There is a tendency among many 

 botanists to speak of fiowers by their 

 scientific names, alone, leaving the 

 homely common names for less learned 

 folk. This is clearly a mistako. There 

 is a wealth of meaning hidden in the 

 common names of plants, thought it is 

 not always easy to get at. We are re- 

 minded of this by the query of a sub- 

 scriber in regai'd to the meaning of the 

 name "witch-hopple" applied to a 

 species of viburnum (F. lantanoides). 

 This species is also called hobble-bush 

 (of which witch hopple is probably a 

 corruption) and American wayfaring 

 tree. If any of our readers can explain 

 the meaning of these names or give a 



