1236 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
greatest share in the distribution of vegetable life in the northern ipo 
d i 
5 
there is no reason to suppose that the terrestrial pole is destitute of vege- 
tation. The most northerly berry-bearing plant yet recorded is Vaccinium 
Vitis-Idea, or the cranberry, gathered in Bushman Island, on the north- 
west shore of vergence vs by Captain W. Penny, or in latitude 76° N., 
ew 
and longitude 6 . The most poto berry-bearing genera are Vac- 
cintum, htt Rubus, Cornus and Empetrum. It is stated that occa- 
sionally berries ripen in Lapland ene doped of Scienc 
[We should think so! See Linneus’s “ Lapland Flora," and ‘Ms inter- 
esting ** Tour in Lapland.” In the former almost thirty baccate-fruited 
plants are enumerated, and at least half of these ripen edible berries. — 
Epirors. | 
THE FERTILIZATION OF WINTER-FLOWERING PLANTS. — Mr. A. W. Ben- 
nett contributes = the first number of the new scientific ma aga pag 
* Nature," the results of some observations on the fertilization of tho 
plants which kibti flower in the winter, when there are few or no 
insects to assist in the distribution of the pollen. He finds that in those 
wild plants which flower and produce seed- bearing capsules throughout 
the year, as the white and red dead- -nettles, shepherd's purse, chickweed, 
groundsel, etc., the pollen is uniformly discharged in the bud before the 
flower opens. Many garden-plants, on the other hand, natives of warmer 
countries, but which still flower with us in the de epth of winter, never 
bear fruit in this climate, and‘in them the pollen is not discharged till the 
flower is fully open. Of this class are the yellow jasmine and the Chi- 
monanthus fragrans, or all-spice tree; in the latter Species the arran ge 
ment of the pistil and the stamens is such as to render self-fertilization 
impossible. — Quarterly Journal of Science. 
ZOOLOGY. 
A Rare Duck. — A specimen of the aio Tree Duck, Dendrocygna 
fulva, was killed in New Orleans on the 2 f January, 1870, and pre- 
sented by Mr. N. B. Moore to the nds Institution. This is the 
Tejou. The species occurs sparingly throughout Mexico and Central 
America and the eastern parts of South America, and is said to have been 
found nesting near Galveston, Texas, by Mr. Dresser. x 
TES E Em NIE ANT PS. V PICENO NIE CN Fe) 
