NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 117 
seemed somewhat earthy. I had no other means of examining it 
than a pocket lens, under which the coloring matter seemed to con- 
sist of tadpole shaped bodies, with rounded heads and attenuated 
tails, perhaps two lines in length. I afterwards met with the same 
phenomenon on the range dividing two branches of the head 
waters of the Similkameen mountains, a little east of the Cascades, 
and at the height of, about 6000 feet. The coloration of the snow 
was unequal — somewhat in bands or clouds, or, as I have above 
expressed it, “ sheeted,” and it rarely penetrated above a few 
inches. I believe this is the first notice of the occurrence of the 
“red snow” within the territories of the United States. — GEORGE 
GIBBS. 
FERTILIZATION OF Fumartace®.— Professor Hildebrand of Bonn 
contributes to Pringsheim’s ‘Jahrbuch für wissenschaftliche Bo- 
tanik” for 1870, a continuation of his observations on the mode of 
fertilization of different races of plants, referring especially to the 
order Fumariaceæ. He finds that in all plants belonging to this 
order the access of pollen to the stigma of the same flower is una- 
voidable, with the exception of Hypecoum, in which the stamens 
are distinct. In the genera with diadelphous stamens (Fumaria, 
Corydalis, Dicentra, etc.), the pollen falls immediately on to the 
stigma, which is in close proximity to the anthers, and is devel- 
oped precisely at the same time. This does not, however, necessa- 
rily imply self-fertilization, as insects carry off the pollen to other 
flowers to fertilize them. By artificial impregnation Prof. Hilde- 
brand obtained similar results to those published by Darwin in the 
case of other plants, that a pistil fertilized by pollen from its own 
stamens does not produce so many seeds as one fertilized by for- 
eign pollen. Hypecoum is somewhat protandrous (stamens ripen- 
ing before pistil).—A. W. B. 
_Fertmization or Dicnocamous Frowers.— While Professor 
Hildebrand has been prosecuting his researches in Germany, Pro- 
fessor Delpino of Florence (now Botanical Professor in the For- 
est Institute at Vallombrosa) has been following up similar lines 
of inquiry in Italy, with equal success. In his recent papers, en- 
titled Ulteriori Osservazioni sulla Dicogamia vel Regno Vegetale— 
of which the first part fills almost two hundred and fifty octavo 
pages, and the first fasciculus of the second part, forty pages 
more — he has illustrated the very diversified arrangements in many 
