134 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 423. 



small, however, to give the tree any value on account of 

 its astringency. 



Attention was then directed to the sugar content of the 

 specimen with better results, for the amount found, when 

 calculated for dry substance, was 15.50 per cent. Since 

 this amount was not materially increased by first treating 

 the infusion with acid, it was probably a glucose sugar. 



The ash in the absolutely dry specimen was found to be 



Fig. 16. — Nymphcea tetragona. 



11.86 per cent., over one-fourth of which was sodium 

 chloride (common salt), the actual amount of salt being 

 3.09 per cent, of the dry substance of the Palm. The 

 locality in which the tree was grown might have had some- 

 thing to do with the amount of salt present. 



The specimen analyzed was a cross-section of the trunk 

 at the base of the leaves, and in the fresh state was suffi- 

 ciently fleshy to be easily cut with a knife, but in drying it 

 became hard and woody. 



It was received through the kindness of Dr. F. Franceschi, 

 of Santa Barbara, California. „ 



College of Pharmacy, Philadelphia, Pa. Henry lrimble. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Nympheea tetragona, Georgi. 



PROBABLY the earliest figure of this small but attractive 

 Water-lily is that of Gmelin in his Flora Sibirica, iv., 

 t. 71 (1769). The woodcut which he gives as Nymphaea 

 alba minor, although rather stiff and crude, is unmistakably 

 of this plant. Georgi's name, N. tetragona, used in 1775 

 in his Bemerkungen einer Reise im Russischen Reiche, L, 



220, is apparently the first published binomial for the spe- 

 cies, although from Sims (Bo/. Blag., xxxvii., under t. 1525) 

 we learn that Pallas had found the same plant in his Siberian 

 travels, and called it tetragonanthos, a name probably un- 

 published until mentioned by Sims. Both specific names 

 allude to the quadrate form of the floral receptacle or even 

 of the flower itself. 



In his Paradisus (t. 68) Salisbury named and figured a 

 Castalia pygmaea, a native of China. This was later trans- 

 ferred to Nymphaea by the younger Aiton as one of his 

 unnamed collaborators (Horl. Kew, ed. 2, iii., 293 [1811]), 

 and Sims, who in the Bot. Mag., xxxviii. , t. 1525, gives an 

 excellent representation of it, admits in his synonymy that 

 the Chinese plant is identical with the older Siberian N. 

 tetragona, to which it is now generally reduced. 



Our knowledge of Nymphaea tetragona as an American 

 plant is comparatively recent, dating from 1888, when Dr. 

 Morong characterized and figured (Bo/. Gas., xiii., 124, t. 7) 

 as Castalia Leibergi what he regarded as a new species 

 from northern Idaho. The types had been secured by Mr. 

 John B. Leiberg in a small pond near Granite Station, on 

 the Northern Pacific Railway. It requires, however, no 

 specialist in aquatic plants to see from Dr. Morong's plate, 

 above cited, that he had before him the flowers of a 

 Nymphaea with the pinnately veined leaves of a Nuphar. 

 A careful study of some of his type material not only con- 

 firms this view, but shows that the Nymphaea is identical 

 with the Asiatic N. tetragona, Georgi. In 1890 Professor 

 Macoun stated (Ca/. Canad. PL, v., 300) on the authority of 

 Professor Britton that N. tetragona had been found in the 

 Misinaibi River, in northern Ontario, by Dr. Robert Bell, 

 and in ponds along the Severn River, Keewalin, by Mr. 

 James Macoun. These plants appear to be the same which 

 Lawson (Trans. Roy. Soc. Canad., ser. iv., 1888, 113) erro- 

 neously referred to Castalia odorata, var. minor. 



With our present knowledge of its distribution, Nymphaea 

 tetragona (see figure 16 on this page) appears to be rare 

 and local in America, but between its widely separated 

 occurrences in north Idaho and north Ontario future and 

 more careful exploration may well show a number of inter- 

 mediate stations. „ . 



Gray Herbarium, Cambridge, iMass. B. L. KOOinsOll. 



Carina Italia. 



ON page 520 of vol. viii. of this journal we quoted from 

 an article by Monsieur Edouard Andre an account of 

 a new race of what he called Italian Cannas, which had 

 been produced by Messrs. Dammann at their grounds near 

 Naples. It was said that a member of the firm, having 

 concluded that he could produce nothing novel by con- 

 tinual interbreeding of the large-flowered varieties, deter- 

 mined to introduce some new blood and began to 

 experiment with Canna flaccida as one of the parents. This 

 species is a native of the southern United States, of medium 

 height, with large flowers, in which one of the petals is 

 specially developed. The first success was achieved from 

 seed of Madame Crozy with a fine variety of C. flaccida as 

 the pollen parent. The result was a plant named Italia, 

 the flower of which was said to be of unusual size, of a 

 golden vermilion color and peculiarly opened or flattened 

 so as to resemble the flower of Kaempfer's Iris. One of the 

 flowers of Italia figured in The Gardeners' Chronicle was 

 said to have been five and three-quarter inches across. 



This new Canna has recently flowered with F. R. Pier- 

 son & Co., of Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson, and although the 

 color of the flower does not exactly coincide with Monsieur 

 Andre's description, the plant is certainly most interesting, 

 and the flowers have a singular and striking beauty. An illus- 

 tration of a truss of these flowers from Mr. Pierson's plant, 

 reduced to less than half the natural size, will be found on 

 page 135. It will be seen that the petals are unusually 

 broad, and that two of the inner ones are held above 

 the three outer ones a trifle, thus producing something 

 of the effect of a double flower. In this arrange- 

 ment it differs from that of any other Canna with 



