THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



83 



It really is as much of a berry, as the blackberry and rasp- 

 berry, for botanically, even these are not berries. 



In growth, the blackberry lily is so much like an iris that 

 for all purposes of cultivation it may be treated as if it were 

 an iris. It multiplies vegetatively by means of a branching 

 rootstock, but the seeds germinate readily and young plants 

 reach blooming size about the second year. When once estab- 

 lished, it seems to require little care, but it is all the better for 

 a mulch of leaves or straw during the winter, especially in the 

 more northern parts of the country. Though never so con- 

 spicuous as its relatives, the gladiolus and iris, it nevertheless 

 deserves sanctuary in the garden and will repay such kindness 

 by thriving in any odd corner. 



AN IDEAL SERIES FOR THALLOPHYTE- 

 BRYOPHYTE STUDY 



By R. I. Raymond. 



T IS the writer's conviction, after some eleven years of 

 teaching Freshmen classes in Botany and Biology, that 

 the commonly suggested type-series of Thallophytes and Bryo- 

 phytes, as found in most text-books and laboratory manuals, is 

 not as desirable an introduction to these plant phyla as may 

 easily be produced, and this too whether the series be looked at 

 as an introduction to phylogenetic conceptions, or as picturing 

 physiologic-morphologic advances, or as simply typifying the 

 great groups in certain select representatives. 



One cannot escape the conviction, moreover, that the usual 

 types are chosen, in almost stereotyped fashion as texts come 

 and go, for the very poor reason that they are easily procurable 

 — as if that might be taken as a good reason for inclusion or 

 exclusion of this or that organism. But the days of ''Clado- 



