818 | General Notes. [ December, 
Usually the flower alone is smooth. The stems are generally 
stout and clustered, from one to two and a half feet high. There 
are often from eighteen to twenty flowers on a stem. This abun- 
dance of flowers seems to characterize nearly all of my speci- 
mens of C. rotundifolia gathered along the shores of Little and 
Gra s Synoptical Flora, our latest 
authority, the plant is said to be 1-9 flowered. Most of 
mine exceed this. One stem has thirty-two in different stages of 
growth. I propose for this variety the name C. rotundifolia var. 
canescens. It grows on sand hills at Indian river, near the out- 
let of Burnt lake, Sheboygan Co., Mich—£. F. Hill, Engle- 
wood, Ii. 
Mr. J. L. Bennett, of Providence, R. I., inferms us that a form 
exactly similar to this, save in the abundant flowers, is found in 
Greenfield, Franklin Co., Mass. ; the amount of canescence differs 
very much, even in the same plants, some stems being very nearly 
smooth, while others are quite hoary; different portions of the 
same stem also varying greatly —W. W. B. 
EXTIRPATION OF A Prant.—Though attributed to Southern 
C 
paratively rarely met with in this region, and in many wide 
ranges has totally disappeared. Where hogs are kept, and are 
allowed to roam at large, as is usually the case in Florida, the 
plant, I am informed, is soon extirpated, those animals raven- 
territory without meeting a single Zamia. Its stem is rich in 
starch, and from it is made the coarser description of Florida 
arrowroot, Hence its attraction for the hog. Any one who has 
seen, as I have, the manner in which this animal attacks and up- 
roots so difficult a subject as the young saw-palmetto (Saba? ser- 
rulata R.and S.) can easily understand what short work it would 
make with the coontie. Belonging to the Cycadacce, its pinnate 
leaves and palm-like aspect. give the Zama a peculiarly orna- 
mental and attractive appearance, and its vanishing from so wide 
a field is much to be regretted. As Florida becomes more thickly 
settled, the total extirpation of the plant, except in its more - 
southern habitat, and where taken into cultivation, may prove to 
be a not unlikely event, from the caus? mentioned, and also from 
its use by man in manufacturing starch and arrowroot.—Henry 
Gillman, Waldo, Florida. 
Tue STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF CHARACE®.—In_ recent 
numbers of the London ¥ournal of Botany, Mr. A. W. Bennett 
and Prof. Caruel discuss this subject; both these botanists dis- 
senting from Sachs’s location of the Characee (in the fourth © 
edition of his Jahrbuch der Botanik) among the Carpospore@, 4 
