I04 ^^^^ AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
they sprouted in quantities, making numerous stout, healthy 
plants, which are now in condition to make flowering plants next 
'Season, thus taking three years to flower from seed. Another 
wild flower in danger of extinction here is the painted cup (Cas- 
tillcia coccinea) . It used to grow in wet meadows in such abund- 
ance that the school children called it ''headache plant," claiming 
that it gave them the headache to go through it. I well remember 
as a child that a bunch oi it held before the face was so dazzling 
to the eyes as to blur the outlines. I have sometimes- seen patches 
of it in which the floral bracts w^ere tipped with bright yellow in- 
stead of scarlet. For several years this plant has been very scarce 
here. 
Another fact I have observed, I would like explained. If the 
flowers of some perennials are picked, the plants disappear. 1 
have known this to happen with the orchid, Colopogon pulchelhis 
and some others. Several years ago a field half a mile from my 
house was full of flowers of Chamaelirium hiteiim. Some ladies 
picked them all to decorate a church, and since that time not a 
flower of this plant has ever been found in that field or its neigh- 
borhood, as far as I can discover. 
Bristol, Conn. 
THE PHYSICIAN'S NEED OF BOTANY. 
By Prof. \V. W. Bailey. 
It will be at once conceded that it strengthens any operator, ar- 
tist, or artisan to have an intimate acquaintance with the tools of 
his profession and it would seem that a certain knowledge of 
botany while not perhaps essential, would be very desirable to the 
physician. The history of the two sciences is coetaneous. 
Yet many physicians are confessedly ignorant of botany, and 
will assure you, from the fact that they have succeeded without 
it, that it has no practical value to the doctor. I confess that this 
argument is hard to meet, nor would I attempt to face it if it 
were not for the fact that just as learned physicians contend for it 
and some of the Medical schools expect it. 
That many physicians have considered botany important, is 
proved by the numberless recruits we have had from their ranks. 
Some of the .s^reatest lights of botanical science have been physi- 
