114 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
able extent, winter killing. Professor King finds a marked de- 
crease in the rate of evaporation for a considerable distance to the 
leeward of a row of trees or a hedge. He also recommends for a 
windy country, where light and comparatively porous soils pre- 
dominate, small, narrow fields, with intervening fields of clover, 
alfalfa, or grass, for even these small plants serve as marked bar- 
rier in drifting soils. — Chas. E. Linney, in Proceedings of Second 
Convention of Weather Bureau officials. 
NOTE AND COMMENT. 
Change of Odor in Jasmin Flowers. — It has been noticed 
by those who grow the common jasmin that the flowers when first 
'expanded, possess in a marked degree the delicious fresh odor 
which is characteristic of them. But as flowering progresses, the 
perfume becomes less delicate and the blooms are then very at- 
tractive to blue-bottle flies. This would appear to have some 
connection with the recorded formation of indol in the jasmin 
bloom as the process of flowering approaches completion.-- 
ScientiHc American. 
The Fringed Gentian a Biennial. — Mr. Plitt who contri- 
buted an interesting article to the October Botanist will find his 
expectations result as he anticipates. More than ten years ago, 
Mr. George Redles contributed to the Germantown Horticultural 
Society, the knowledge of the biennial habit of the fringeil gen- 
tian and both he and myself have possessed a "rare locality" in 
the "Wissahickon woods" — a noted locality here — by collecting 
seed and planting with judgment. Seeds planted one year de- 
velop the next, the plants blooming the second year. There has 
been no variation from this and we have followed this course for 
so many reasons with unvarying results that with us, the bienn.ial 
character is beyond a doubt. — Edzcin C. Jellett, Gerniantozvn. Pa. 
A Mix-up in Common Names. — An amusing instance of the 
misunderstandings that may arise when only the common names 
of plants are used, and one that well teaches the value of a stable 
nomenclature, is furnished by two horticultural contemporaries. 
Some one sent the editor of the Florist's Exchange a box of pa- 
paw fruits {Asimina triloba) and asked if the difference in the 
