THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 
55 
tunity for the student of plant-life to discover new laws. The 
peculiar behaviors of plants are often of service to the student in 
matters of classification. Some botanists place the order of 
Trumpet-flowers, Bignoniaceae, very close to the order O'f Scroph^ 
ulariaceae, in which Mimiihis is placed. Some species of the 
former family have thin, irritable plates for the stigma just as 
Mimiilns has, indicating that the close relationship botanists have 
supposed is correct. — Meehans Monthly. 
Stonecrops AS Lightning Conductors.— The name of this 
family (Sediim) is suggestive, for the plants sit patiently on dur- 
ing the extremes of heat and cold. Bentley enumerates thirteen 
British species. The most frequent are 5'. tectoriim and 6'. acre, 
possessed of very opposite qualities. The former plant enjoys 
a curative reputation amongst old wives and herbalists. Since 
the introduction of slates the sight of a red-tiled cottage covered 
with this Sedum has become rare— at least in the neighborhood of 
populous tO'wns. Sixty years since it added very much to the 
picturesque beauty of many a roof in the Lake District. When 
pedestrianizing in company with a brother pharmacist we admir- 
ed a fine display on the roof and outbuildings of a farmhouse. 
The tenant, an aged, but hale and hearty lady of primitive man- 
ners, volunteered the information that a building was thereby 
protected from thunderstorms, and that *'this very house was sav- 
ed by its intervention. In my grandfather's time the lightning 
struck the roof and turned the thunder-flower all to a jelly ; but the 
house was saved, and that is why it is called thunder-flower" Some 
twenty years after, when traveling on the continent, this Sedum 
was noticed growing abundantly upon many a housetop in Bel- 
gium, where it was known as ^'Dunderblomen at Arras, in 
France, it was styled ''Fleur de Tonnerre " It is remarkable that 
this humble plant should be thus recognized in places so remote 
from each other, and it might be of interest to lovers of plant-lore 
to investigate the subject, and if possible extract the extent and 
origin of the legend, which may date from remote antiquity.— 
Pharmaceutical Journal. 
The Ripening of Mitchella Repens.— The note in the July 
issue referring to the ripening of Gaulthera procumbens and 
Mitchella repens fruit under the snow somewhat surprised me, 
