THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
95 
Wilting of Flowers. — In any company of flower- 
gatherers it will be noted that all are not able to preserve 
their bouquets in similar condition. Though all gather 
the same flowers at the same time, it will soon be found 
that the flowers gathered by some wilt much more quickly 
than those gathered by others. This peculiarity appears 
not easily explained, though most botanizers can doubt- 
less recall instances of it. 
Locality and Common Names. — The common names 
often change with the locality and are then no better than 
the scientific names of the *'new" nomenclature. For 
instance : the sycamore of Scripture is a fig, the sycamore 
of England is a maple and that of America is the button- 
wood (Platanus Occident alis) . It is necessary to give the 
scientific name of the button-wood, because in some parts 
of our own country the same name is given to a small 
bush (Cephalanthus accident alis). A more familiar case 
of the confusion of common names is found in the applica- 
tion of the word mayflower. In England this is applied 
to the hawthorn {Crataegus)^ in Massachusetts to the 
trailing arbutus {Epigaea repens)^ in New York and Penn- 
sylvania to the azalia {A. nudiBora), in various places to 
the mandrake {Podophyllum peltatum) or the hepatica 
{H. triloba). 
Locality and the Color of Flowers.— Sometimes 
one finds a most remarkable difference in the colors of 
flowers of the same species from different localities. In the 
Eastern States, Trillium erectum is so constantly dull red 
in color as to be called commonly the red trillium. In the 
vicinity of Joliet, 111., the flowers are pure white and one 
might collect for years without seeing a red one. It would 
be interesting to know whether the white flowered form 
is confined to the middle west and whether the two colors 
intergrade where the eastern and western forms meet. 
Evidently the flowers indicate two so-called "elementary 
species." Readers are requested to report on the forms 
found in their own locality, not forgetting to mention the 
yellowish green form of the flower when it occurs. It 
