66 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



food and water are stored up for the early plant, making 

 it quite independent of rains. There are many devices 

 among the plants in this country of long dry seasons for 

 getting on in life. This ^*big root" is one and some 

 months ago I told you about the turkey weed which takes 

 the driest and hottest time of the year, and arranges all 

 its parts to gain its livelihood when most plants would 

 die. It has a short thread for a root hardy sufficing it to 

 cling to the ground, but an intricate covering of hairs to 

 catch and guide the dew into the pores of its leaves. 

 While the chilicothe on the contrary is entirely dependent 

 on its root; so also is its cousin Cucurhita fcetidissima 

 *'mock orange," a postrate vine bearing large yellow 

 flowers looking like pumpkin blossoms and in the fall a 

 plentiful crop of yellow gourds the size of oranges. 



This plant comes on late in summer, growing rank 

 and fast and perfectly secure from molestation by man or 

 beast. Its leaves are large and velvety, its flowers fine, 

 but the whole plant gives out such an atrocious odor 

 when touched, it is left to its own aflairs entirely. I have 

 never yet found courage to analyze it, content to take the 

 word of some braver student who has. 



Orange, Cal. 



BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS.— I. 



ALTHOUGH we now have numerous books for popu- 

 larizing the study of our wild flowers and an equal 

 number of manuals by the use of w^hich, under the guid- 

 ance of a teacher, one may become familiar with the 

 science of plants, there is still to be heard the complaint 

 from the beginner working alone that he makes progress 

 but slowly. One of his chief grievances is the excessive use 

 of technical terms ; even the popular works bristle with 

 them. The fact is that botany, like all other sciences, is 

 first of all exact, and the terms in use convey such definite 

 ideas that the botanist finds it much easier to use them 

 when writing for the beginner, than to select other terms 

 more readily understood. The writer believes, However, 



