THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
9] 
cabbage come true from seeds. The significant fact in these 
growing tests was, that among the progeny of the plant with 
rose-colored flowers were several seedlings with rose-colored 
petals, deep crimson bases and seed-pods intermedi- 
ate between the two forms. The growers consider these 
forms as natural hybrids, but we suggest that they may be 
the same sort of "elementary species" that the evening prim- 
rose has been found to produce. Breeding from these so- 
called hybrids, one could easily produce the oculiroseus form. 
Any plant breeder would agree to do it, petals, capsules and 
all. In view of these facts, how can anybody call the two 
forms separate species? If the crimson-eyed form merits a 
distinguishing name, it should be Hibiscus moscheiitos oculir- 
oseus. 
Undiscovered Attractions of Flowers. — It is not 
always the flowers with the greatest expanse of petal, nor yet 
those with the sweetest scent, that attract the greatest number 
of bees and other insects. Often plants with the most insig- 
nificant of flowers, and apparently no odor at all are found 
to be swarming with insect visitors. The common European 
bryony {Bryonia dioica) , one of the gourd family, is a plant 
of this kind. Some have suggested that the attraction con- 
sists of an odor that we cannot perceive, but which is notice- 
able enough to the bees, while others have been inclined to 
the opinion that the flowers emit ultra-violet rays, which, as 
Lubbock has shown, are perceived by both bees and ants. 
A German, Knuth by name, was first to make this suggestion 
and in support of it, he experimented with bryony flowers and 
found that they readily affected photographic plates. 
Mycorhiza and the Higher Fungi. — It is well known 
to most plant students that certain plants, instead of pro- 
ducing root-hairs upon their rootlets with which to absorb 
plant food, have set up a partnership with various fungi in 
which the fungi act as root hairs and are nourished by the 
