THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
15 
coughing, much to the astonishment of persons unfamiliar 
with its pecuHarities." 
We would modestlj' suggest that that botanic garden 
expert" be sent a specimen of this wonderful coughing 
plant. No doubt he could easily contrive a cough mixture 
that would cure it. Meanwhile, owners of the plant who 
find it getting red with prolonged coughing are neglecting 
their duty if the\' do not slap it on the back or tender it a 
cough-drop. If the "expert " has any decency about him, 
he will not attempt to treat this plant in the same house 
with the sensitive plant. Think what a case of " nerves " 
would be developed. No really sensitive plant could think 
of occup3'ing the same bench with a stranger that is in the 
habit of coughing until it becomes red all over. 
N©t© gIFIgI ©<S)M^FFl@Flt. 
notes of interest to the general bot- 
i demand for this department. Our 
to make this the place of publication 
More Extinct Species.— In these days when any 
systematic botanist is inclined to stretch a point in order 
to include a new species in his list, it is refreshing to take 
up a publication like that of Dr. J. W. Blankinship's on the 
Flora of Montana in which the author has the good sense 
to see that no good can come from describing new species 
that do not exist. Although he is State Botanist of 
\Iontana he has deliberately disclaimed nearly a hundred 
species credited to the State by recent writers. Some are 
excluded because out of their known range, others because 
wrongly determined, and still others because in the 
opinion of the author they are mere forms of better known 
species. The systematic botany of the West seems to have 
become very much Rafinesquesque in the past few years. 
