THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



111 



may be precipitated and evaporated again and again before 

 it finally runs down to the sea. The connection of the forests 

 with all this is that forests evaporate more moisture in a given 

 time than any other form of vegetation and even more than 

 will evaporate from a free water surface. The existence of 

 forests in the region near the coast is thus seen to be of the 

 utmost importance to those dwelling much further inland. 

 Residents of the northern states in the Mississippi valley are, 

 therefore, more vitally interested in the preservation of the 

 forests in the Southern States than are the residents of the 

 Southern States themselves. 



Distribution oe Viola pedata. — Those who are ac- 

 customed to make fine distinctions in plant life regard the 

 widely distributed form of the bird foot violet as a variety, 

 reserving the specific name for a plant much less common and 

 with a restricted distribution. This curious situation, in which 

 a variety is considered to be more widely distributed than 

 the type, is due to the fact that the plant named as the type 

 was discovered and named first. Typical Viola pedata, then, 

 is supposed to have the two upper petals deep purple and the 

 three lower ones nearly white, while the variety {linear iloha) 

 has all the petals lavender. Until recently the type was sup- 

 posed to be restricted to the Eastern States but it has now 

 been reported from northern Illinois. It seems that the range 

 may be still further extended, for on a recent excursion of 

 the Joliet Botanical Club into northwestern Indiana, the species 

 was found several times near Liverpool. 



Bees and Corn. — We are taught in ecological works 

 that the inconspicuous flowers, such as those of the grasses, 

 are pohinated by the wind and, by inference at least, that in- 

 sects do not visit such blossoms. That this inference is not always 

 correct is shown in the case of sweet corn where bees may 

 often be seen gathering pollen from the staminate flowers. 

 Since the pistillate flowers (the "ear," in common parlance) 



