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THE AMERICAN BOTANIST, 
Job's Tears. — According to Indian Planting and 
Gardening the grass known as Job's tears {Coix lacryma- 
johi) has been used for food and ornament from time 
immemorial. The round, hard, bluish-white fruits with a 
perforation in the middle is supposed to have first 
suggested the idea of beads. The stony character of the 
fruits incline botanists to think that this is the Litho- 
spermon mentioned by Pliny. The plant also has reputed 
medicinal virtues. 
HiBERNACULA. — Many Water plants that disappear at 
the approach of cold weather tide over this season by 
means of curious propagative buds called hibernacula. 
These buds are formed at the tips of the stems in early 
autumn and differ from ordinarj- buds principally in being 
much thicker and stored with nourishment. As the plant 
dies these heavy buds sink to the bottom where they pass 
the winter. In spring the buds begin new stems and in 
the case of floating species bubbles of gas are evolved 
which soon carry them to the surface again. The species 
in our flora that usually form hibernacula are the duck- 
meats (Lemna, Splrodela and WolG^a), the bladder-worts 
{Utericularia), the pondweeds (Potamogeton) and the 
ditch moss (Elodea). 
Golden Seal.— The United States Department ot 
Agriculture has recenth^ issued a pamphlet on golden seal 
{Hydrastis Canadensis) a wild plant of medicinal value 
that is fast becoming rare, though the demand for it by 
the drug trade is steadily increasing. The dried roots 
and rootstocks are the parts used and the prices paid 
vary with the suppl^^and demand. Ten years ago golden 
seal could be bought for less than twenty cents a pound, 
now the average price is above fifty cents and choice lots 
have been sold for $1.40 a i)ound. Experiments made in 
cultivating the plants show that an acre will 34eld 1500 
pounds of marketable roots after three ^^ears' cultivation. 
It thus appears that considerable money may be made in 
cultivating the plant in proper localities. At present the 
entire supply comes from wild plants. 
