78 
THE PLANT WORLD. 
nooks filled with two-leaved Solomon’s seal, and old stumps 
hidden in black night-shade. One may happen upon a bunch of 
Indian pipes, or a solitary plant of beech-drops or a few stalks 
of one-flowered cancer-root. Herb Robert clings to the rocks 
and blooms all summer long. In their seasons shin-leaf, water- 
leaf, wood and field strawberries and the partridge vine abound. 
The more exposed slopes are covered with speedwell. Near the 
top of the hill is a space filled with bellwort, Indian cucumber- 
root, wild sarsaparilla and Solomon’s seal. 
This old hillside is truly an ideal spot to the nature lover. If 
only it might be left unmolested, but already the roof of the first 
summer house has appeared in the distant landscape and rumors 
of invading trolley lines are abroad. The few people who know 
this Eden are awaiting with fear the day when egg shells and 
paper bags will litter the moss, and the fern fronds will lie fading 
beside the track of the trolleys. 
THE BIOLOGY OF BUDS AND TWIGS IN WINTER.* 
By Dr. K. M. Wiegand. 
Some of the important facts in connection with the life of winter 
buds in our climate are very poorly understood. Measurements 
tend to show that fruit buds, at least, do not swell during the 
winter, but only in late spring. It seems that the color of buds 
may influence the absorption of heat to some extent, and there¬ 
fore may be of importance in influencing the time of opening in 
the spring. 
Ice is present in most buds if the temperature falls below about 
24 0 F. At zero F. the amount is often very large, and of thirty 
species examined only in eight could none be found. The ice 
forms in large sheets of prismatic crystals in the mesophyll of the 
scales, and in the parenchyma of the various other organs. The 
cells give up their water and collapse, while many of them are 
forced far apart by the ice. Twigs show a decided contraction 
* Abstract of a paper read before the Botanical Society of America, 
Dec., 1904. 
