THE AMERICAN BOTANIST I i 5 
amount of fruit borne by different trees was not due to imperfect 
or unisexual flowers. Upon his replying in the aiflmative the 
editor of hidian Gardening observes that they do not know every 
thing down in Ohio and that the papaw tree (which this time is 
(Carica papaya) bears the two kinds of flowers on separate trees. 
Each editor had a different tree in mind, but one common name 
characterized both. 
How THE Choke-Berry Increases. — The tangled thickets 
of choke-berry (Pyrus melanocarpa) are conspicuous features ot 
many swampy tracts, but only in a general way is it known how 
such thickets are formed. If one will take the trouble to dig up 
a specimen he will find that many of the roots, after running for 
some distance in the soil turn abruptly upward and form new 
stems. An old shrub with all its dependent progeny around it is 
a curious sio^ht when uprooted. Its manner of life is exactly the 
reverse of the famous banyan tree whose branches produce roots. 
The choke-berry's method is only a variation of the penchant for 
producing suckers from the roots that is common to many of its 
nearest of kin. Some varities of the cultivated plum sucker so 
freely that they are not to be tolerated on a well kept lawn. The 
wil ' crab also has the habit. Let but a single plant alone and it 
will produce a thicket in short order — a vast green pyramid, the 
tallest and oldest plants in the center, and grading down to the 
tender yearlings on the edges. 
Albino Flowers. — When the slightest difference is noted and 
varying departures from original types are seized upon to en- 
hance the reputation of their discoverers, why is it that the white 
variety of the chickory {Cichorinm intybus) and the white var- 
iety of the moth mullein ( Verbasciim hlattaria) are not distinct- 
ly named ? Both these varieties are constant and in some locali- 
ties are almost as plentiful as the standard types. Prof. Gray, 
many years ago gave a reason, but when less important variations 
in other classes of plants are recorded, it to me seems strange that 
differences so pronounced are passed. — Edzcin C. Jellett, Ger- 
numdozL'n, Pa. [Most botanists look upon white flowers as al- 
binos and the circumstances which produce them as analogous to 
those which cause albinism in animals. Less notice would there- 
