14 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



One Way to Protect Plants. — Mature Notes tells of 

 a successful method for protecting plants adopted by a 

 man named Atkins. "A neighbor collector remarked to 

 him that some of the less common plants of the neighbor- 

 hood — bee orchids, I think — seemed to be suffering from 

 the wholesale attacks of some new enemy, all their flower- 

 ing shoots being nipped off. 'Oh,' said Atkins, 'I did that 

 to prevent you, finding them,' " 



A New Edible Tuber. — French tropical colonies have 

 recently taken up the cultivation of a new edible tuber, the 

 product of a species of coleus (C. Coppini). The tubers 

 average about an inch and a half long and half an inch 

 thick. In the countries where these tubers grow, the po- 

 tato is said to run mostly to tops, and the new tubers, 

 having much the taste of potatoes and being prepared in 

 the same way, are proving valuable as a substitute. 



Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter.— The officers 

 elected by this chapter for 1903 are as follows : President, 

 Chas. C. Plitt, Baltimore, Md.; General Secretary, George 

 P. Ells, Norwalk, Conn. ; Treasurer, Roscoe J. Webb, 

 Garrettsville, Ohio; Members of Executive Council, J. 

 Ford Sempers, Aiken, Md, and J. C. Buchheister^ Griffins 

 Corners, N. Y. Any student of botany is eligible to mem- 

 bership and further information may be had by address- 

 ing the officers. The studies are carried on entirely by 

 correspondence. 



The Wool on the Cinnamon Fern. — A correspond- 

 ent asks ''What do you suppose those little woolly tufts 

 are for, at the base of each pinna of the cinnamon fern ?" 

 Any reply we can make to this must, as suggested, be 

 entirely in the line of supposition but judging from other 

 members of the Osmunda family we should be inclined to 

 say that this wool is a remnant of that which clothed the 

 young crosiers, or "fiddle-heads" in winter and spring. 

 All the Osmundas are protected by a woolly covering dur- 

 ing the winter. The royal fern (O. regalis) being the 

 smoothest, early casts off its woolly coat in patches, ex- 

 posing its glaucous stem. The interrupted fern (O. Clay- 



