THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



143 



dissolved in alcohol is recommended by another subscriber. If 

 any reader of this magazine suffers in future from ivy poison- 

 ing, it would seem tO' be his own fault when he has so many 

 infallible remedies from which to select. 



Fruiting of the Lady-slipper. — A subscriber asks ''Do 

 Cypripeditims bear seeds every year? I fail to find any signs 

 of such development in this town this year, but I find the last 

 year's seed pods, especially those of Cypripedium acaule 

 standing in the cluster of this year's leaves. There is nothing 

 left to show that they bore any blossoms this year except the 

 stem and the upper bract, which remains." It often happens 

 that when a plant has borne seed one season it rests the follow- 

 ing year and fails to produce flowers, but when flowers are 

 produced as in the present case, another reason for the lack of 

 seeds must be sought. Owing to the highly specialized methods 

 of pollination in vogue among the orchids, many flowers 

 annually fail to set seeds. Only certain insects can eft'ect 

 pollination in these plants and when these insects are absent 

 no seeds can form. Anything, therefore, that affects the insect 

 crop may influence the orchid crop as well. Probably the 

 rarity of many orchids is as much clue to a lack of proper 

 pollinating insects as it is to other adverse conditions. Nature 

 is apparently aware of the orchid's handicap in the matter of 

 pollination and endeavors to make up for it by allowing the 

 flowers to remain open for longer periods than do those of most 

 other plants. 



Viola Pedata in Ohio. — This species is known to occur 

 in two of the extreme southern counties of Ohio, Lawrence 

 and Scioto. At Ironton in Lawrence county the plant is very 

 abundant on a steep grassy hillside facing the southwest. The 

 common form present is the one with strongly contrasted 

 petals. The upper petals are dark violet as described in the 

 manuals and the lower are rather pale lilac-purple. It is a 



