1052 General Notes. [ December, 
was the injured member. These large limbs, swaying in a hard 
wind, act as great levers, and are frequently not sufficiently sup- 
ported at the crotch. 
The meaning of all this is that a tree of which the trunk 
habitually divides into large nearly equal branches is much more 
liable to be injured by the wind than one having a strong central 
‘axis with many small limbs as, for example, the white pine. 
Thus the accumulated effects of the wind have undoubtedly 
been to develop excurrent forms of tree-top. But the question 
naturally arises why pines, spruces, etc., have this form in greater 
perfection than other trees. Well, in the first place deciduous 
trees are usually injured by the wind only while in foliage during 
the summer months; but evergreens, being always in foliage, are 
practically exposed to the action of the wind for at least twice as 
great a time each year as are maples, elms, etc. Then too, ac- 
cording to palzontology, the cone-bearing evergreens came into 
existence many thousands, perhaps millions, of years before any 
tree that annually sheds its leaves. Thus the coniferous evergreens 
have had a vastly longer time in which to accumulate the effects 
of the wind and develop an excurrent form of top than have de- 
ciduous trees.—B. F. Hoyt, Manchester, Towa. 
A Hysrip ArrLe.— Recently a student brought me a “Ben 
Davis” apple characteristically marked throughout a little less 
than three-fourths of its surface, the remainder (a wide crimson 
streak from stem to calyx) having undoubted marks of the 
“Jonathan” variety. The tree from which it came is a Ben 
Davis,” and a “ Jonathan” tree stands within a distance of sev- 
eral rods. Upon cutting the apple it was found that the bee 
zation was confined to two carpels, and that the development © 
the flesh of these and the corresponding calyx-segments had been 
somewhat greater longitudinally and considerably less tra 
versely than for the remaining carpels. Upon tasting the flesh 0 
the “ Jonathan ” part of the apple it was found to differ quite per 
ceptibly from that of the “ Ben Davis ” part. =. 
It is probable that we have in this apple an example of the 1m- 
mediate effect of the pollen upon the fruit. In this case = 
“ Jonathan ” pollen affected the fruit (a) by changing thé color 
the skin, (b) by causing the hybrid segments to grow longer an 
narrower, thus approximating nearer to the “ Jonathan form, 
and (c) by changing the taste of the flesh.— Charles E. Bessey. 
= Ruppra MARITIMA L. ın Nepraska—This maritime plant oe 
lately been brought to me from a pond near one of the many a 
springs which occur in the vicinity of Lincoln. The species 
not recorded in the catalogues of the Western State floras, ae 
innesota (Upham), Iowa (Arthur), Missouri (Tracy), Kan oa 
(Carruth); nor does it occur in the East, away from the gr 
with but a single exception. It is not found in the flora © 
