ii6 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
fore be taken of a white-tiowered form of a species that normally 
produces colored llowers than if the flowers varied to some other 
color. Albino flowers are always of interest and the finding of 
such on s])ecies not before known to produce them should be re- 
corded. — Ed.] 
Origin of Nectaries. — The nectar is produced in the flower 
"for tiie bees in order to secure a transfer of pollen — so we are 
told, — but how about the nectaries on other parts of the plant? 
]^.Iany plants ha^-e honey-glands at the base of the leaves and even 
the ferns, which never bear flowers and therefore have no pollen 
to carry, often have these glands. The common bracken {ttcris 
aquilina) is a conspicuous example. The truth is that our inter- 
pretation of each fact in plant-life as an adaptation of the plant 
looking toward its active advancement is probably erroneous. In 
the case of honey-glands on the leaf-stem it has been found that 
most, if not all of them, are merely excreting organs. The 
plant takes its crude materials from the water and air and in the 
chemical leaction necessary to form the material for its own u^e, 
certain other undesirable products are thrown off and these the 
plant promptly ^tts rid of by emptying them through the glands. 
If these excreted products happen to please the tastes of ant or fly 
il is so much their gain. The bracken has honey-glands at the 
base uf each pinnule; but the male fern (Kcphrodium riiL^r-inas) 
of Europe and the marginal shield fern {Nephrodiiim viargin- 
ale) of America, as if to show conclusively that the attraction of 
insects is not their real object, have similar glands in their root- 
stccks which empty inwardly into certain vacant spaces formed 
by the breaking down of several old cells. To return to the flow- 
er, it is probable that the nectaries were not evolved entirely with 
an eye to tiie tee; but that given 'i primitive honey-gland and ari 
insect with a taste for sweets, bee and nectary have developed to- 
gether. 
An American Plant Craze. — The craze for tulips that rag- 
ed in Holland some three hundred years ago, is a matter of com- 
mon knowledge. While it was at its height, two thousand dol- 
lars was frequently paid for a single bulb. That this mania had 
a parallel in America seems scarcely known. According to The 
