THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



127 



I believe this freakish form has become fixed in some of 

 the plants, as there were two specimens growing together with 

 this peculiarity and another nearby. The buds had not opened 

 when we found them so we carefully dug up the plants and 

 transferred them to our home where they developed perfectly 

 into quaint flowers of surpassing interest. I photographed 

 them on June 9th. The pictures will give a clearer and better 

 idea of them than any description can. The species represented 

 is the smaller yellow lady-slipper, Cypripedmm parmUuni. 



[Good illustrations of plant freaks are always worth pre- 

 serving; in fact, we rarely publish anything of this nature 

 without receiving requests for further information from various 

 parts of the world. We hope Mr. Fedder will keep watch of 

 this plant during succeeding seasons. It will be interesting to 

 know whether the peculiarity noted will persist as so many 

 freaks do. — Ed.] 



LATEX 



By Willard N. Clute. 



XJTERE and there, among the plants of field and forest, one 

 comes upon specimens that, when broken, yield, not the 

 colorless sap naturally expected, but a sticky white fluid much 

 resembling milk. This substance is technically known as latex 

 from lac the Latin word for milk, and the plants that produce 

 it are often called milkweeds. Latex, however, is far from 

 being defined as a white fluid. A majority of laticiferous plants 

 have a white latex, to be sure, but the latex of bloodroot is red ; 

 that of celandine, orange ; that of horned poppy, yellow ; while 

 the latex of the California poppy is clear and colorless. Among 

 the mushrooms we find still more brilliant colors. In the genus 

 Lactariiis named in allusion tO' the milky juice possessed by 

 many species, we find sulphur yellow, brick-red and vermillion 



