ee RET Cm a ee TPR RCE oe AE Ae, AE EESE nd DET dee al BN bet ea E S 
ZOOLOGY. 487 
Probably every careful botanist would be able to relate similar 
experiences.— J. W. CHICKERING, Jr. Washington. 
Moosewoop Fisre.— At a recent meeting of the California 
Academy of Sciences, Dr. A. Kellogg presented specimens of the 
bark of a shrub Dirca palustris (Moosewood) of stronger fibre 
than any hitherto known, obtainable in this vicinity by tons and 
in the valley of the Mississippi by millions of tons. 
The bark presented was in the crude condition as it came from 
the Ramie machine. The entire shrub, wood and bark, is suitable 
to work into fine quality of paper. 
If desirable to separate the bark, it is done in the easiest man- 
ner possible. On the State University grounds may be seen a 
tree four and one-half to five inches in diameter. Mixed with 
silk the fibre is superior to Ramie. Even for coarse fabrics it may 
prove a substitute for jute, of which a very large amount is annu- 
ally imported into the Southern States for baling cotton. The tree 
is familiar to us as Moosewood, but has not heretofore been 
brought forward, so far as we are aware, as material for paper. 
Ostoxe SucktEyana Torrey.—In our Colorado collections last 
Year we find this plant, perhaps the first time gathered so far 
north.— Tuomas MEEHAN. 
Borantca, Norasii1a.—E. A. Thompson of North Woburn an- 
nounces a wild double-flowered state of Saxifraga Virginiensis. 
We have heard of this in only one instance before. ev V. Col 
age finds at Grand Rapids, Michigan, a Trillium grandiflorum 
with six sepals and fifteen petals, all green.” This chlorosis 
monstrosity occurs occasionally, but we have never seen so many 
floral leaves. Also Ranunculus Purshii with leaves all dissected 
although the plants were strictly terrestrial, rooted in merely 
Moist grou 
Correcrroy, — In my remarks, in the last number, on’ Quercus 
alba var. Gunnisonii, I wrote, ‘ some of the trees have the bark of 
Q. alba,” not none of the trees, as was printed. — Tuos. MEEHAN. 
ZOOLOGY. 
ARE GREGARIOUS Rat or Texas (Sigmodon Berlandierit). — 
"wa burrowing, gregarious rat, and like the Prairie dog lives 
