﻿70 



Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



SAPINDACEJE. 



133. Aesculus flava, Aiton. — Sweet Buckeye. A peculiar feature 

 of this species was noted in a tree growing near Loveland, 0. The lowest 

 branches started from the trunk at least twenty feet from the base, and 

 then drooping suddenly came down to within about six feet of the ground, 

 and then spread out horizontally. Nearly all the branches seemed to have 

 the same mode of growth. 



ANACARDIACEvE. 



141. Rhus venenata, D.C., is given in Clark's Catalogue. I have 

 never found it here, nor do I know of its having been found lately. It 

 should be omitted from the list. 



LEGUMINOSiE. 



143. Trifolium pratense, L. — At the meeting of the Agricultural 

 Congress at Montreal in August, 1882, Prof. W. J. Beal read a paper on 

 the variations to be noticed in the red clover (^Trifolium pratense). He 

 spoke of the varied habit of growth, it being sometimes upright and some- 

 times spreading; called attention to the presence or absence of pubescence ; 

 to the presence or absence of spots on the leaves; to the variation in 

 the number and color of the seeds, and said that he generally found the 

 heads to be sessile. He further thought that by selection the varieties 

 might be greatly improved. The variation which Prof. Beal did not notice 

 so prominently has been noticed this year (1884) to be very common. In 

 many instances I have found the heads of flowers to be distinctly stalked, 

 sometimes these stalks being as much as two inches long. 



In our botanies the distinctions between Trifolium pratense and T. 

 medium are these : In the former the heads are sessile and the leaflets are 

 spotted ; in the latter the heads are stalked and the leaves' are unspotted ; 

 while a still further difference is given by Hooker in Student's Flora of 

 the British Isles; this is, that the pods of the T. pratense open by the top 

 falling off, and those of the medium have a longitudinal dehiscence. 

 None of these characters seem to hold good. In some specimens the leaves 

 are spotted and the heads are stalked; in others the heads are sessile and 

 the leaves are not spotted; while all the pods I have examined have a lon- 

 gitudinal dehiscence. Dr. Gray in the Manual says the one species is too 

 near the other, and it would seem from the facts now known that it would 

 be wise to unite the two species under the name of T. pratense. 



149a. Medicago sativa, L. Alfalfa, Lucerne — A plant with three 

 parted leaves and blue flowers, extensively cultivated in many places as 



