WILD FLOWER PRESERVATION. 
39 
is in this plant a remarkable correlation between the exposition 
of the pistillate flowers and the loosening of the staminate flowers, 
in that both these phenomena always occur at the same time, dur¬ 
ing low water.” Wylie in working with the hydrophilous Elodea, 
recently, also observed a periodicity in the detachment of the 
staminate flowers, though of course from a different cause, as 
Elodea is a fresh-water plant. After fertilization the fruit is 
pulled entirely under water by the spiral twisting of the pedicel. 
Owing to the large development of mucilage in the ovary, 
Svedelius was not able to study sporogenesis or the development 
of the gametophytes. True to the ordinal character of the 
Fluviales very little endosperm is developed. 
Another remarkable character of the plant is its viviparous 
habit. The term “ viviparous ” is used here not in the sense that 
it was used by earlier botanists in regard to the grasses. Enalus 
“ can scarcely be considered to have any seeds, because it is the 
young embryos which are dispersed at the opening of the fruit.” 
Thus there is no resting stage in the plant, for the embryos are 
shed while they are still in process of development and dropping 
to the mud continue to grow. Therefore we have a case of true 
vivipary such as F. E. Lloyd reported for Podocarpus and Kerner 
for various mangroves, though in the case of Enalus the embryos 
do not develop as long upon the plant as they do in the mangroves 
and Podocarpus. I. D. C. 
THE WILD FLOWER PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF 
AMERICA. 
Report of the President for 1904. 
To the Members of the Wild Flower Preservation Society: 
The question may arise as to what need there is of a movement 
for the preservation of the wild flowers of America. Why do 
we need to preserve the wild flowers? There are men in every 
community who would not miss the wild plants should they all 
be blotted out, but these are men who have no conception of the 
use of the beautiful. We should conserve these shy plants, each 
