THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
own publications on the subject. Mr. W. C. Barbour, Sayre, 
Pa., will name specimens of hepatics or liverworts. Prof. John 
AT. Holzinger, Winona, Minn., has agreed to name mosses and 
V'ijlaicl N. Clute will identify the ferns. Mr. James A. Graves, 
Surquehanna, Pa., will assist members in naming the sedges. 
Specialists in other difficult groups will soon be added to this list. 
Nearly all of those named have promised articles on the collection 
and preservation of specimens. 
Members who send specimens for identification are reminded 
that the f^pecialists are very busy people and should not be asked 
to name specimens out of curiosity. If one has done his best to 
name his specimens, without success then he will find the special- 
ist gic.d to aid him. And if he would help the specialist to correct 
identified :h:n. he should send the best specimens he can find with 
any note he may think serviceable. Above all he will not forget 
to fully prepay postage and to enclose stamped and self-addressed 
envelope for reply. 
The club has already issued a folder explaining its aims, copies 
of v.hich may be obtained from the secretary. The constitution 
and list of members will soon be published. Members are expect- 
ed to report upon their studies to the president at least four times 
a year. These reports will subsequently be published in the Am- 
erican Botanist. The dues are fifty cents a year and all persons 
interested in plants are cordially invited to join. Address the 
secietary for further information or in applying for membership. 
NATIONAL FLOWERS. 
By Mrs. Bertha Taylor. 
The national flowers of other countries have most of them been 
chosen on account of some historical association. Scotland has 
chosen the thistle as her flower. The story is this: During a 
night attack which some Danes were making on a body of Scots, 
a bare-footed soldier trod on a thistle and in his agony, gave a 
cry which aroused and saved the sleeping men. Well may the 
motto of the order of the thistle be ''Nemo me impune lacessit." 
No one wounds me with impunity or in Scots dialect, "Take tent 
how ye muddle with me." 
