BOTANY. 167 
in great abundance. ‘The limbs of the trees affected were very 
. much distorted: every twig bristled with the little parasite, and 
some trees seem to have died from the effects of its absorption of 
their sap.” It is curious to notice, first that a plant of this sort, 
growing on the boughs of Spruce trees in such quantity as to dis- 
tort and even destroy them, and in three (adjacent) counties of 
a long and fully settled region, has been entirely overlooked, and 
then, when discovered, found about the same time by two inde- 
pendent observers at considerable distance from each other. We 
may now expect that it will be detected through the whole length 
of the Adirondacks, at least if it proves to be the same species 
as that of Hudson’s Bay, as we think is likely. It grows, how- 
ever, upon Spruce instead of Pine. The plants are diminutive, 
and in Dr. Engelmann’s opinion, which is much to be relied on, 
is probably specifically distinct. So he names it Arceuthobium 
minutum. Curiously enough Mr. Elihu Hall found last summer, 
in Oregon, a larger Arceuthobium also inhabiting Spruce trees, 
and may therefore throw more light on the study of the New York 
plant. The specimens are now in the hands of the botanist most 
— to this investigation, Dr. Engelmann of St. Louis— A. 
RAY. 
; FLORAL CuRIOSITY.— A friend has brought me a Fuchsia, grown 
in his parlor window, which exhibits one of those abnormal growths 
not uncommon in the vegetable world, but which [ have not ob- 
Served among Fuchsias. Two of the outer sepals are perfect 
Steen leaves, precisely similar to the ordinary foliage of the plant, 
pering to a broad petiole and uniting at the base, with the two 
normal sepals, to form the tube above the germ. The rest of the 
flower does not differ from other blossoms. It is an interesting 
instance of the well understood fact that sepals and corollas are 
Ste leaves, or rather advanced development of leaves. — 
Hall of Illinois passed last summer in Oregon, where he 
: was most industriously occupied in amassing 2 large collection of 
e M Specimens. These are now being arranged and named 
e will goon be offered to subseribers in sets, at eight dollars 
= hundred Specimens. The magnitude of the sets of Phæ- 
ngamons and Vascular Cryptogamous plants may be rightly 
E. Hàrr’s CoLLECTION or Drip Prants or Orecon.— Mr. - 
* 
