1877.] Botany. A.. 
I sent specimens of the foliage and unripesfruit,to Professor Sargent, 
Director of the Botanic Garden of Harvard University, for identifica- 
tion. His reply is as follows: “ Your morning-glory seems to be 
Ipomea setosa Lindl., a little-known species ; it occurs in Jamaica as an 
introduced plant from Brazil, while the flora of Brazil is doubtful of 
its nativity. At any rate you have a most interesting plant. If possi- 
ble send good herbarium specimens of flowers and foliage, and by all 
means a good supply of ripe seed. You will do well to plant several 
seeds in order to secure a crop of seed for next year for general distri- 
bution, as there is no chance that seed will ripen here, either in the 
garden or under glass. This plant flowered in England as long ago as 
1818, but is long since lost to cultivation. So you will be conferring a 
great benefit on cultivators by re-introducing it.” 
All the seeds that we can spare this year, we shall send to Professor 
Sargent for him to distribute as he thinks best. 
The remarkable growth of the plant was in a great measure owing to 
the soil in which it grew. It was planted on a terrace adjoining the 
St. John’s River. The terrace is made mostly from muck taken from 
the river. Some weeds grew here to the size of small trees. One 
amaranth attained the height of twenty-five feet and eighteen inches in 
circumference, and several others approximated this. — Mary TREAT. 
BJECTS OF THE DIVERSITIES IN THE MODE OF ARRANGEMENT OF 
THE FLORAL OrGans.—In the paper by Dr. Masters, elsewhere re- 
ferred to, occurs the following passage which will be of interest to our 
readers : “The alternate position seems to be in most instances a pro- 
Vision for ensuring space to closely packed organs, so as to prevent 
undue amount of pressure on the growing tissues. In cases where the 
development of the stamens lags behind that of the petals, the question 
of space is not of so much moment as under other circumstances. It 
_ May often be an advantage to the plant to have the stamen concealed in 
the cavity of the petal, . . . . where such an arrangement may be ben- 
eficial either for protection’s sake, or in various manners connected with 
fertilization. . In other cases the existing arrangement may be a relic of 
some ancestral condition which has now lost its significance ; or, on the 
other hand, could we but read it aright, it might offer a forecast of some 
future development.” 
Borantcat Papers in Recent ‘PERIODICALS. — Journal of the 
Linnean Society, Botany. December 15th. T. H. Potts, Habits of 
Filices observed about the Malvern Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand. 
S. H. Vines, On the Digestive Ferment of Nepenthes. (The following 
facts are regarded by the author as established by his experiments: (1.) 
rye glands of the pitchers of Nepenthes contain a digestive ferment 
18 soluble in glycerine, and which can exert its digestive action 
hoe y in the presence of acid. The fact of digestion was clearly made 
(ut by Von Gorup- Besanez, May 22, 1876; (2.) the digestive fer- 
