THE OENITHOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



■61 



bers are as good as the first one the 

 magazine is sure to be a succsss. Geo. 

 L. Howe, Granger, Oregon, is editoi- 

 and publisher. 



Tlie Taxidermist, a new magazine 

 devoted to taxidermy and popular nat- 

 ural history, is published by E. W. 

 Martin at Medina, Ohio. The initial 

 number is dated July 1891, and is a 

 very creditable one, the only defect 

 being a rather poor grade of paper. The 

 magazine bids fair to become popular 

 as it is the only one in the United 

 States, published in theinterests of taxi- 

 dermists. 



H. E. Berry, Damariscotta, Maine, 

 has sold his interest in the Bittern to 

 C. W. Hillman, Canisteo, N. Y., who 

 will add a colored cover to it and issue 

 it on the fifteentlfof each month. It is 

 rumored also, that Mr. Hillman is soon 

 to buy the Maine Ornithologist and 

 Oologist, and, making it sixteen pages in 

 size, issue it as the Empire- State Nat- 

 uralist. We hope to see these maga- 

 zines prosper under Mr. Hillman's guid- 

 ance. 



THE DISPERSION OF PLANTS. 



There are few studies more interest- 

 ing than the dispersion of plants. Tho- 

 reau, who, though a poet and a dreamer, 

 was a ke m observer of plants and ani- 

 mals, remarked how walnuts are planted 

 by squirrels and that the instinct which 

 impelled the animals thus to lay by a 

 store of food for future use was often 

 made to subserve the distribution of 

 nut-bearing plants. We now know 

 that the forms and structures of most 

 fruits and seeds have reference more or 

 less directly to their dispersion. Many 

 fruits are made enticing to animals by 

 their color and taste, and thereby get 

 themselves eaten, while the compar- 

 atively indigestable seeds they contain 

 pass through the alimentary canal of 

 the animal and are deposited under 

 conditions most favorable for germi- 



nation. The laxative properties of many 

 fruits doubtless subserve a similar end, 

 as is apparently the case with the fruits 

 of podaphyllum. In some of the com- 

 positse, as the dandelion, the adherent 

 calyx has its limb modified into a pappus, 

 which forms a kind of parachute, caus- 

 ing the fruits to be wafted oftentimes to 

 great distances by the wind. In others, 

 as in bidens, the pappus consists of bar- 

 bed awns, v/hich adhere to the fleece of 

 sheei? or the clothing of men, and the 

 fruits are thus carried away. And in 

 still others of the same order that grow 

 along the margins of streams the pappus 

 forms a floating ajiparatus, by means of 

 which the fruits are carried away by 

 running water. Anyone who has ob- 

 served the behavior of the winged fruits 

 of the maple when the wind detaches 

 them from the tree must be convinced 

 that they are admirably adapted to be 

 scattered by the wind. The wings com- 

 municate to the fruit a whirling motion 

 as they fall, causing them to remain for 

 a much longer period in the air, and as 

 their detachment from the tree usually 

 occurs when the wind is blowing, they 

 are thus floated to a considerable dis- 

 tance from the parent tree. It is to be 

 noted also that the wing serves, like the 

 feather to an arrow, to bring the oppo- 

 site or seed end of the fruit to earth 

 first, and in a situation most favorable 

 for germination. But these are only a 

 few of the many interesting modes by 

 which plants are dispersed. — Ex. 



It is one of the enjoyable features of 

 bird study, as in truth it is of life in gen- 

 eral, that so many of its pleasentest ex- 

 periences have not to be sought after, 

 but befall us by the way; like rare and 

 beautiful flowers, which are nevermore 

 welcome than when they smile uppon us 

 unexpecttedly from the roadside. -Torrey 



When nature has work to be done, 

 she creates a genius to do it. — Emerson. 



