74 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



specimen is also interesting on account of abnormalities in the 

 inflorescence. At the top of the exceptionally long raceme, 

 there were three buds and one flower and at the base, three pods 

 about half mature. Between these tw^o extremes a distance of 

 15 cm., there were neither flowers nor pods, nor had any fallen 

 off. — Edzuin D. Hull, Chicago. 



The Largest Chrysanthemum. — In view of the rapid 

 progress that plant breeders are making in increasing the size 

 of flowers and fruits, it would be diflicult to set a limit beyond 

 which we were willing to certify that a given species could not 

 go. Of course, the greatest improvement has been made in 

 common vegetables and the flowers usually kept in stock b}^ the 

 florist but in none is the increase more marvelous than in the 

 chrysanthemum. Everyone is familiar with those large globu- 

 lar flower-heads made by removing all the flower buds but the 

 terminal one and throwing all the strength of the plant into 

 this, but it may surprise some to learn just how large the 

 largest of these may become. According to Horticulture, a 

 French amateur recently won a prize of twenty dollars with a 

 chrysanthemum that measured more than sixt3^-four inches 

 around it. This is many times the size of the original flower- 

 head and suggests great possibilities when the same methods 

 come to be applied to tomatoes, cherries, and the like. 



Lineage of Walnut and Hickory. — The walnuts and 

 hickories are characteristic members of the tree flora in North 

 Temperate latitudes and, though they are usually regarded as 

 rather primitive types, they have held their own against various 

 newcomers for a very long time ; in fact, the family line is 

 supposed to go back some millions of years and evidence of it 

 has been found in the mid-cretaceous. Several of our well- 

 known species have also been found fossil, among them the 

 pecan, the shagbark, the bitter nut and the water hickory. In 

 earlier days the hickories were much more widety distributed 

 than at present and were found throughout central and north- 



