04 
BOTANICAL INDEX. 
West gathering 2,500 species and 75,000 specimens. I shall collect in Southwestern 
Utah, California and Arizona, next season. Mr. Toronto of this City, and Mr. How- 
ard, two young collectors, have done good work here and deserve mention. 
I cannot fail to mention a very pleasant visit I had with Drs. Engelmann and 
C. C. Parry, who came here in July and stayed nearly a week. We went over the 
mountains together and found some valuable things about the conifers of this region. 
Do not fail to give a full report of this extended trip along with Prof. Sargent of the 
Harvard Arboritum. They went as far as the Fraser river in Oregon, and as far 
south as Tucson, Arizona, and cleared up many doubts on the conifers of the West. 
Lemmon has been making some very good collections in Arizona. 
SUMMER MOTES FROM FLORIDA. 
MARY C. REYNOLDS. 
^HILE engaged during the past season in collecting plants, I have been very 
much interested in noting the great variety in the forms of roots. Many 
of our plants have thick carrot-like roots, extending far below the surface, 
and possessing few or no fibrous roots. Asimina grandiflora, a small shrub 
of the Papaw tribe, which bears large drooping white flowers, has one 
_ large straight tap-root which extends downward four or five feet. It is 
extremely difficult to dig small plants, ancf the difficulty increases to impossibility 
with large-sized o'nes. As yet I have been unable to procure any of the sweetish 
fruit, as the hogs are very fond of it, and take eai-ly possession. Acerates connirens, 
a pretty member of the milkweed family, has also a very thick and rather woody 
tap-root which is sometimes an inch in t diameter. Berlandiera tomentrjsa, with its 
honey-scented bright-yellow flowers, Stillingia sylvatica, (the milky “Queen's-de- 
light”) and Ceannthus Americanus, with its dainty tiny white flowers, have all roots 
of the same character. 
Of the Rhexias, with their gay beautiful flowers, we have five or six species. The 
“Deer-grass,” as R. glabella is especially called by the country people here, because 
of the fondness of the deer for its leaves, has two or three rather thick, long, per- 
pendicular roots which have a distinct soft bark easily scraped off in digging. R. 
ciliosa and R. Mariana on the contrary have two slender horizontal fibrous roots 
spreading quite near the surface. R. latea is a beautiful yellow-flowered species. 
The three Pinguiculas , P.pumila, P. elatior and P. lutea (one of our very hand- 
somest wild flowers), have a cluster of straight succulent white stools two or three 
inches in length. These Pinguiculas are very attractive house-plants, both on ac- 
count of their pretty clusters of pale yellowish-green leaves and their beautiful 
flowers. With us they bloom in March and April. 
Liatris odoratissima, the “Florida Vanilla,” and L. Paniculata have their fleshy 
fibrous roots, while Liatris elegans, in common with several other species, has a root 
like, a small round turnip. A fit companion for their handsome composite flowers is 
the beautiful pale-purple Carphephorus coryinbosus. It is noticeable in this study of 
roots that those plants which have very thick flesh} 7 roots are usually natives of dry 
sandy barrens; and others of damp places. 
Canna flaccida is a native of our bogs; its bright yellow flowers are very different 
in shape and size from those of the garden varieties, resembling very much the Iris 
blossoms. It is very beautiful and well worthy of cultivation, which it enjoys. 
Among the native vines there are two which deserve especial mention, Clitoria 
Mariana and Centrosema Virginiana. The first is already known. The Centroseina 
is a delicate vine bearing a profusion of elegant purple flowers, and is a free grower. 
Among the Orchids collected this year are the rare Mycrostylis Floridana, Chapm. 
(for which I have discovered two new localities), Epidendrum venosurn, and E. conop- 
seum: Bletia verecunda, Pogonia divaricata, Gymnadenia flava and G. nivea; Platanthera 
ciliaris and var blephariglottis, P. cristata, Goodyera quercicola and Ponthieva glandulosa. 
The two latter and the Epidendrums are excellent for fernery culture. 
Duranta Plumieri and Chiococca racemosa are noteworthy because of their beautiful 
berries. The Duranta is a tall, elegant shrub bearing loosely-flowered racemes of 
small lilac-colored flowers succeeded by golden-yellow berries about as large as cur- 
rants ; these racemes are from four to eight inches long, and the wax-like berries 
are very handsome. 
The Chiococca is a shrub or shrubby vine with small while flowers and racemes 
of snow-white berries. These are very elegant as shown against the glossy dark 
green leaves. 
My experiments in fern culture prove that Polypodium Phyllitidis, P. aureum, P. 
