56 



THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



THE GRAY MEMORIAL BOTANICAL CHAPTER 



OF THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION. 



NOTES. ■ 



Hereafter reports will be due June 1st 

 and December 1st. 



An unusual interest is manifested in 

 the Chapter at present. 



Hereafter persons elected to member- 

 ship will not be considered members 

 until they have received the Treasurer's 

 receipt for their entrance fee when they 

 will be assigned to the proper divisions 

 and placed upon the list of those enti- 

 tled to receive reports. 



Transplanting Epipactis Helleborine. 



As stated by Gray, the only known 

 American stations for this rare orchid 

 are near Syracuse and Buffalo. 



To prevent its speedy extinction which 

 seemed inevitable, the Buffalo Field Club 

 last summer, set out GO plants in five 

 localities near Buffalo, mostly within 

 Erie County. 



If any of our members wish to have 

 it, I will be glad to send them some, be- 

 cause it cannot exist much longer in 

 Forest Lawn, its present habitat. 

 Mathildb Schlegel, East Aurora N.Y. 



SAGUTAEIA VARIABILIS. 

 Is there a variety, gracilis? 



While out rusticating in Nature's do- 

 main one day, last summer, I noticed 

 along the railroad, on either side of 

 which was a swamp, laden v/ith wild 

 plants, an abundance of Sagittaria var- 

 iabilis. I saw among them some which 

 were so distinctly the variety gracilis, 

 that with diificulty I dug up a good one 

 and took it home with me, planting it in 

 a large crock filled with water, to let it 

 grow under as favorable circumstances 

 as possible, and so I could watch it. 



As the old leaves died off and new 

 ones kept coming out, the latter began 

 to assume an obtuse foi-m, until by the 



time it flowered, it had lost all semblence 

 to its former self, and was no longer a 

 variety, but a type specimen. 



Query: Can there be a variety after 

 all, such as is described under the head, 

 gracilis'? E. Wilkinson. 



HOW TO PRESERVE FUNGI. 



It is sometimes desirable to preserve 

 specimens of fungi for future or more 

 convenient examination. For such pur- 

 poses the following mixture has been 

 recommended: 



Sulphuric acid, - - - 2 pints. 



Water, - 8 " 



mix and add 



Creosote, 1 pint. 



Bottle the fungi in this and cork tight- 

 ly. It is said to preserve them perfectly, 

 without change of color. 



— Boston Journal of Chemistry. 



A RARE PLANT. 



The rarest plant that I have collected 

 is Marsilia quadrifolia, which grows 

 on the shores of Bantam Lake, Conn., 

 its only known habitat in America, ac- 

 cording to Gray. It is a contented, 

 unpretentious little member of our flora, 

 in places just matting itself together in 

 the black mud. and with its nerved four- 

 parted leaves looks like a bed of "good- 

 luck" clover. A little distance from shore 

 it stretches its petioles to float its leaves 

 on the water, or it creeps with long 

 branches over yellow sand in which sit- 

 uation it seems especially prolific, with 

 its queer little ovoid sporocarps. It is a 

 sleepy little plant, too, closing its leaf- 

 lets quickly and firmly for a nap as 

 soon as it finds itself out of the sun- 

 light. In this age of relic hunting the 

 Marsilia is entitled to respect and ven 

 eration for its great antiquity. Ac- 

 cording to Dawson in "Geological His- 

 tory of Plants" is is the last survivor of 

 a large and ancient family which flour- 

 ished during one of the earlier geologi- 

 cal ages. 



Esther H, Thompson. 



