THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
!9 
Before we are willing to change from Spiranthes to either 
Gyrostachys or Ibidium we want to be assured that this 
change is to be the last. Thus far, the only effect the 
movement for a stable nomenclature has had upon scientific 
plant names is to make them so unstable that the common 
names are used by preference when one wishes to be exact. 
The whole family of orchids has fallen an easy prey to the 
changer of names. Nearly three-fourths of the names given 
to the orchids in Gray's Manual are no longer applied to 
the plants by the ''advanced" botanists. 
Azalea Occidentalis. — This species of azalea is fre- 
quent among the California mountains, and among the sheep 
herders, goes by the name of sheep- or poison-laurel. It 
is quite poisonous to slieep, and tlie herders will often drive 
their flocks considerable detours in order to avoid localities 
w' c "^ : ^o i^row. — C. F. Sctnndcrs , Pcscidciici . 
Calif. 
Elaborate Terminology. — New terms are not al- 
w^ays produced by the systematist; his brother studying the 
physiology of plants occasionally does something note- 
worthy. One of his latest is the proposal of the word 
paralleloheliotropocampylostrophismic to indicate the bend- 
ing and twisting of a plant toward the light. 
Douglas Spruce Tea. — The leaves of that noble Coni- 
fer of the P;::cific Slope — the Douglas spruce ( Pseud ctsu^^a 
Douglasii) — when steeped, make a very palatable, refresh- 
ing substitute for Chinese tea, and old mountaineers, when 
their supplies run low, sometimes use them so; just as hem- 
lock leaves used to be emplG3"ed by lumbermen in Eastern 
woods — C. F. Saunders, Pasadena, Calif, 
The Elder in Florida. — The editor of the Florida 
Agriculfuralist has the following to say about one of our 
common plants. The common elder, {Saiiihucus Canaden- 
sis,) is not usually considered an ornamental plant. Yet it 
