THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



37 



delights to stroll barefoot about his fields in summertime. 

 Happening one day to pass through some poison ivy he 

 was promptly poisoned, but the next day, being of an ex- 

 perimental turn of mind, he returned to the ivy and ate 

 some of the leaves as a cure, possibly actuated by the old 

 idea that the hair of a dog will cure its bite. If an^^ of our 

 readers who are proof against the ivy will kindly repeat 

 Mrs. Anthony's experiment and let us know the results, 

 we will be much gratified. — Ed.] 



A Pretty Experiment With the Yellow Birch.— 

 One who happens in the woods this winter may produce 

 a pleasing picture by touching a lighted match to the 

 shaggy base of the yellow birch. The resin in these papery 

 layers of bark cause them to burn readily and the flame 

 rapidly mounts upward often into the treetops. This ex- 

 periment does no harm to the tree and when snow is on 

 the ground there is no danger of setting fire to the grove. 

 The orange flame and blue smoke seen against the back- 

 ground of snow-laden evergreens forms a sight worth see- 

 ing. 



Seed Dispersal of the Violets.— When I began to 

 cultivate plants in a botanic garden some twenty-five 

 years ago, I thought it would be very nice to have as 

 many kinds of violets as I could get, growing close together 

 in one group. All went well for about three years when I 

 found my plants hopelessly mixed, because the seeds were 

 shot several feet from the parent plants. For a long time 

 I have planted the violets each in a separate place about 

 the garden to enable me to keep them pure. The best 

 shooter of the lot is Viola alpestris which frequently scat- 

 ters its seeds ten feet in either direstion. — W, J. Beal in 

 Rhodora, 



