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THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



exceedingly high osmotic pressure in their cells which enables 

 them to extract moisture from such unfavorable surroundings. 



A Gigantic Cone. — To those who are familiar with the 

 fiuits of the Gymnosperms, the great cones of some of the 

 western pines, which often measure more than a foot in length, 

 may seem gigantic but these are by no means the limit of what 

 Nature can do in the matter of cones. Dr. C. J. Chamberlain, 

 who has recently returned from a tour of the world, made for 

 the purpose of studying the Cycads, reports that the cones of 

 Encephalartos caifer, a species of South Africa, has cones that 

 sometimes reach a weight of ninety pounds. This is the 

 heaviest cone produced by a Gymnosperm. An allied species, 

 Macrozamia Denisoni, from Queensland, Australia, has a cone 

 that often weighs seventy pounds and is more than three feet 

 long. The individual seeds in such a cone are large enough to 

 be made into match boxes. The cones, as most people are 

 aware, are really ripened fruits, the young cones being in fact 

 the pistillate flowers. Their size ought to make them prime 

 favorites with the botanist who so often in studying other 

 flowers must make use of a lens or microscope. In these plants, 

 all the floral parts are constructed on a generous plan. Even 

 the sperm cells, which unite with the eggs, are large enough 

 to be seen with the unaided eye and have the added peculiarity 

 of being ciliated like those of the lower orders of plant life. 



The Fragrance of Plants. — Flowers either have to be 

 curious, beautiful or fragrant to gain a place in the garden. 

 Lacking these qualities the gardener is likely to call them 

 weeds. The fragrance of plants does not always reside in the 

 flowers, though we usually think of the flowers when we think 

 of fragrant plants. The fragrance may proceed from almost 

 any part of the plant. In the lavender, thyme, and the mint 

 family generally, the odor is found in the leaves and stems , 

 in the cinnamon tree the odor is in the bark of the trunks and 

 branches ; in the sasafras in the bark of the root ; in the sandal- 



