THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



69 



the wood and bark of the trees and ultimately cause their death 

 through decay of the living tissue. It is reported that the 

 luminosity of these fungus strands is what causes the phosphor- 

 escent wood which one often finds in the forest. The Aniiillaria 

 strands are familiar to woodsmen who call them "shoe-strings." 

 The fungus has been found on various cone-bearing trees as 

 well as on the white oak, chestnut, poplar, maples and June- 

 berry (AmelaJichicr) . Several regions have been discovered 

 where the chestnuts and oaks are dying off rapidly from the at- 

 tacks of this fungus. 



Keeping Flowers From AA^iltixg. — Durino- the warm 

 weather it often happens that a bouquet of flowers placed in 

 water begins to wilt at once, although flowers of the same kind 

 may on other occasions, show no disposition to do so. The 

 trouble is due to the wav in which the flowers are gathered. If 

 gathered when the sun has been shining on them for some time 

 the pull of the evaporating water which is being given off by all 

 parts of the plant, is suflicient to set up a decided tension in the 

 water carrying tubes of the stem and when the stem is cut the 

 tension draws the sap, and after it the air, into the small tubes. 

 AMiile a continuous column of water in the tubes, or ducts, as 

 they are called, will continue to pull up more water, a bubble of 

 air introduced into this column at once breaks the flow. If 

 flowers are gathered earlv in the morning or on dull days, no 

 wilting is likely to occur if they are at once put into water, but 

 on other occasions the proper way is to plunge the stems into a 

 basin of water, and while under water to cut oft" an inch or two 

 of stem, which will thus get rid of the air-filled space and make 

 a continuous water column again. 



A ]\Iix-up IX Tulips. — As everybody knows, each tulip 

 bulb produces a single large flower on a scape. During the past 

 spring in our gardens, several double tulips, not content with 

 producing double flowers, that is, flowers having numerous pet- 

 als, have put up a common stalk upon which as many as four 



