THE AMERICAN BOTANIST, 
97 
— not a very appetizing article, one would think. In the 
same category might be placed the tea made from a species 
of goldenrod (SoHdago odora). Those who have tried it 
will willingly testify to its tansy-like taste. The plant is 
often known as Pennsylvania mountain tea. A fragrant 
tea is reported to have been made from spice-bush {Ben- 
zoin). A better-known tea is that from the sweet fern 
{Myrica asplenifolia) which has the virtue of being medi- 
cinal as well as palatable. The infusion of the berries of 
several sumacs {Rhus glabra, R. typhina and R. copalHna) 
as well as of the barberry can scarcely be called teas and 
yet they belong to the beverages derived from wild plants. 
No doubt there are many others. As for medicinal teas, 
used solely for their curative properties, they are too 
numerous to mention were they entitled to a place among 
the beverages. 
Elementary Species.— It seems probable that there 
are more of DeVries' elementary species about than one 
would at first surmise. When the collector discovers a 
plant that differs from the normal, instead of pulling it up 
for an herbarium specimen he would do well to transplant 
it to a safe place in his garden for further observation ; or, 
if he cannot do this, he should by all means collect the 
seeds that others may experiment with them. When sat- 
isfied that it is really an elementary species, he should 
carefully describe it and give it a name. Other students 
may do good work in cultivating species thought to be 
varieties of others. The blue violets are excellent subjects 
for investigation. No one doubts that most of the violet 
species described are different from the othersi, but that 
they are systematic species may be very seriously ques- 
tioned. Only cultural experiments seem likely to settle 
the matter, but it is pretty certain that many of these can 
be proved to be elementary species. Any two forms that 
differ merely in the quantity of pubescence, color of the 
flowers, number of petals or shape of the fruits are desir- 
able subjects for experiment. 
