112 
pressure” was forcing water through the larger branches of the 
root and up the stems. No leaves, and few if any living cells, 
remained above ground to utilize the water being carried up in 
the essentially uninjured vessels of the outermost layers of the 
xylem. The ascending stream of considerable volume was rather 
quickly chilled and the water frozen soon after it reached a 
point in the stem slightly above ground. The water, upon being 
frozen, expanded and ruptured the cortical tissues appearing as 
the beginning of a short ribbon of ice. The first-formed ice is 
forced on by the transpiration stream, which freezes as it comes 
to the surface and is exposed to sub-freezing temperatures. 
The ice masses are thin, fragile, and quite flexible, so that 
extensive ribbons or bands, result. We have observed three-inch 
wide ice ribbon bands developing to become four or five inches 
long. Also, I have observed that the ribbons were faintly cor- 
rugated and take this as an indication of the fact that the water 
was frozen and was crystallized somewhat before it had emerged 
from the tissues of the stem. 
UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE 
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE. 
‘*Frost flowers” in Florida 
Rotanp M. HARPER 
Mr. Raymond H. Torrey’s note on frost crystals on Cunila 
in northern New Jersey, in the Jan.-Feb. number of TORREYA, 
reminds me of a similar phenomenon that I observed on the 
same day about eleven degrees farther south. On the morning of 
Nov. 27, 1930 (Thanksgiving Day), I went with Dr. John K. 
Small and Dr. Herman Kurz to Wakulla County, Florida, to 
show Dr. Small a certain plant he was looking for. In Tallahas- 
see, 18 miles north of the locality to be cited, the weather had 
been cloudy and rainy most of the month (much more than usual 
for November), but that day was clear, and there had been a 
killing frost the night before. 
In flat pine woods underlaid by limestone, in the Gulf Ham- 
mock region, about half way between Wakulla and St. Mar k's, 
we noticed around a cypress pond, on many dead stems of 
Pluchea foetida (formerly known as P. bifrons), a few inches from 
the ground, delicate excrescences of ice almost exactly like that 
figured by Mr. Torr ey; something that none of us had ever seen 
