32 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 
local branch. These branches are to be self-governing. Each 
will be named for a flower or some noted botanist to be selected 
by the members of the branch. Since there are several cities in 
which we have more than five members, it is expected that we 
will soon have several branches of the club. The club now has a 
membership in fifteen states. 
NOTE AND COMMENT. 
Wanted. — Short notes of interest to the general botanist are 
always in demand for this department. Our readers are invited 
to make this the place oi publication for their botanical items. 
WiNTERGREEN Berries.— In the neighborhood of Philadelphia 
these little berries (Gaultheria procumbens) ripen in September 
and October, and they are sold on the street fruit dealers' stalls 
at the same time with chestnuts. I gathered a couple today ( Sep- 
tember 7) evidently of the new crop, about three quarters red and 
one-quarter white.~C F. Saunders 
Tuber Bearing LABiATES—Referring to your note on this sub- 
ject in the May issue of The American Botanist, I would men- 
tion Scutellaria parvula as an American tuber bearer in the mint 
family. It is a small plant, 4 or 5 inches high. At the one sta- 
tion where I have gathered it near Philadelphia, the root stock 
is sometimes beaded with a succession of the small tubers, remind- 
ing one of a section of a rude necklace.~C. F. Saunders. 
Reduction of Species in ANTENNARiA.~The lines separat- 
ing the species in certain genera have been drawn so taut in recent 
years that they have reached the point of rupture. It has often 
been prophesied that many of the "new species" would turn out 
to be founded upon insufiicient characters and this now seems 
coming true. Mr. Elias Nelson in the Botanical Gazette for Au- 
gust asserts that a large number of what' have been described as 
distinct species of Antennaria are not even worthy of sub-speciflc 
rank. Mr. Nelson's observations have been carefully made and 
his conclusions, will strike the majority of botanists as very sen- 
sible. 
Unusual Plant Names.~x\ glance through any extensive 
list of plant names will disclose many names that apparently bear 
