1879. } Botany. 699 
buried their own seeds, and in other instances the seeds buried 
themselves, the means by which these processes were effected 
being fully explained by Sir John, who, in conclusion, called 
attention to mimicking seeds, such as the Scorpiurus, the pods of 
which did not open, but looked so exactly Tike worms that birds 
were induced to peck at them and thus free the seeds. That this 
was the purpose of the resemblance he would not assert, but he 
threw it out as a matter for consideration. 
Tuer FRUIT OF SUEPHERDIA CANADENSIS.—In the same locality 
as Prunus pumila (p. 649) is found Shepherdia Canadensis Nutt., 
whose fruit differs from the description commonly given. Gray’s 
Manual states that it is “ yellowish-red, insipid ;” Wood’s Class 
Book, “ Berries oval, scaly, sweetish to the taste;” Nuttall, who 
originally described it, “ Berries squamose, sweetish but scarcely 
edible.” The berries are pleasantly acid, followed, however, by a 
slightly bitter taste if the skin be retained in the mouth. he 
color is scarlet, in this respect, as well as in the globular form and 
the size, closely resembling the common red currant. A dish of 
them would at first sight be taken for currants by almost any 
one. The bushes bore abundance of fruit this year, which is 
rather uncommon, and except in leaves, strikingly simulated 
well-loaded currant bushes. Bringing some home in fruit, and 
showing them to some children before allowing them to be tasted, 
they were at once said to be currants, and were eaten with a rel- 
ish, showing that the children do not agree with the botanists, if 
these are typical berries. They are sparsely covered with scales 
in the form of the brown radiating hairs so abundant on the 
under side of the leaf, that form such pretty objects under the mi- 
croscope. The description of the fruit of the buffalo berry of 
Upper Missouri (S. argentea Nutt), “edible, acid, scarlet,” really 
answers more correctly for this. The plant does not seem to 
vary otherwise from the ordinary descriptiom—E£. J. Hill. 
