105 



to the botanist. Our Cardinal Flower is the only really 

 beautiful one wo have, but the West Indian species are, 

 many of them, perfectly gorgeous. The Clethra, which has 

 been alluded to, is one of the great family of the Heaths, 

 and almost the latest one, with us, to open its odorous blos- 

 soms. It is a pretty shrub for the garden, growing and flow- 

 •ering "well. The Dogbane also mentioned is a close relative 

 ■of the popular Oleander. Its family arc all possessed of 

 active properties and some are violent poisons. Here wa 

 may note the fact, that a simple feature marks every mem- 

 ber of this family,, as the botanists often finds to be the case 

 elsewhere. Every one of these plants has the stigma, or top 

 of the pistil, shaped just like a little spool, and this simple 

 trait is not found in any other family. He further spoke of 

 the Ground Nut, (^Apios) the Thoroughworfc and Everlast- 

 ing, with several of the Nightshades. The Potato is only a 

 cultivated Nightshade producing tubers ; and these tubers 

 are not roots, as some think, but buds upon underground 

 suckers, swollen and gorged with nutritious matter. A 

 specimen was shown with the tubers growing above ground. 

 Mr. T. having also spoken of the fact that the connuon Red 

 Clover has sometimes heads of a clear white. The Chair 

 corroborated the observation and added some remarks on. 

 changes of color in our native flowers. 



James E. Oliver of Lynn said he had found these bleached 

 Clover-heads and the Thistle now and then exhibited similar 

 changes. What is the real nature of this phenomenon ? 

 Can we call it a freak of nature, or is it something produced 

 under a regular chain of causes, and reducible by experi- 

 ment and investigation ? And if there exist laws for the 

 change of color in flowers, may there not be such for change 

 of species in the plants themselves ? In fine, what is the 

 true solution of the vexed question of the origin of species ? 

 Plainly such changes may be very easy and gradual, or they 



ESSEX INST. PROCEED. VOL. iii. 14. 



