P. S.-AUGUST 29, 1870.-I have to-day found, at Sandwich, Ontario, on the Detroit river, the Wolffia Columbiana, Kars., in full flower. I inclose specimens, but hardly hope they will arrive in perfection. The surface of the pool where I found them, and where I have watched them for more than a year, is covered with the little plants for more than three-quarters of an inch thick. H. G.

[For the benefit of some who may be unacquainted with the plants mentioned in the communication of Mr. Gillman, we may state that the species of Lemna are extremely minute plants growing on the surface of ponds and still waters, and sometimes called Duckweed. They vary in size from one-twelfth to one-quarter of an inch, consisting of a simple leaf-like body with slender roots emitted from the under surface. They rarely produce flowers in this country, the usual mode of reproduction being by the development of small, bulb-like bodies from the edge of the leaves; these bulbs sink to the bottom of the water in the fall, and rise to the surface for development in the spring. The flowers, when they do appear, are produced from a slit or opening in the edge of the leaf; they are reduced to the simplest state, one or two producing a single stamen, and one or two a single pistil.

The Wolffia is a plant of similar nature, of microscopic size and simpler structure, each plant producing a single flower of stamen and pistil, formed by a small cup-like depression in the body of the leaf or plant.-ED.]

VEGETABLE CELLS.

BY DR. FELIX SCHAAN, CHICAGO.

PART III.-Continued from page 256.) [Fig. 214.]

larly one to the other. In Cactus you find them in every slice. Geranium presents also a large amount of cells containing, crystals. (See Fig. 137.)

Schleiden says that oxalate of lime crystals can take also the form of needles. I had some doubt whether all needle-shaped crystals were oxalate of lime, and, on inquiring, I went to the following statements. The crystals of oxalate of lime in the Cactus, I treated with nitric acid. It was not dissolved entirely, but corroded only on the edges. I added a drop of ammonia, and I saw that the crystal disappeared rapidly, leaving several gas bubbles.

I made a precipitate of oxalate of lime by double decomposition, by pouring into a solution of nitrate of lime, a solution of oxalate of potash, and carefully washing the precipitate, selected on a filtering paper: trying on this oxalate of lime the reactives above mentioned, I found them verified. So it may be stated that these crystals are oxalate of lime. Some needleshaped crystals I submitted to a careful study with the following result: I took for object the rasping of the root of Sarsaparilla (Smilax Sarsaparilla). By the addition of a drop of water we find in the middle of a ring of starch globules a fascicle of needle crystals, and near by you find other needles whose points are broken and scattered in the vicinity. (Fig. 215, a).

Oxalate of Lime in Cactus.

3. Crystals. In the vegetable cells we often find crystals of oxalate of lime; they crystalize in form of quadratic octahedrons. It is seldom we find this octahedron well developed; you see a large heap of plates agglomerated irregu

In a longitudinal slice of the same root, you may remark between the porous cells and the starch cells a long line of these needle-shaped crystals, whose points all look in one direction and follow one another like a procession of ants going to the hillock. (Fig. 215, b). At first I thought-there we have cells with crystals like the Cactus and Geranium cells, and I suspected some porous cells to be the home of these crystals. Error! I analyzed the rasping of the root

without water; I could not find any needles or a trace of a crystal. In the heap of starch I remarked a transparent rippled object which I thought was the source of the crystals. I then poured a drop of water between the object glasses, but the same object was not changed; in moving the object I found near by the well constituted needles, where there was nothing of that kind before.

I repeated several times the same experiment, and saw finally the needles take their origin of the surrounding shapeless matter in a twinkling. What are they composed of? Oxalate of lime? This latter salt is obtained by nitric acid, but the needles I saw appear more numerous by the addition of nitric acid. Ammonia dissolved them. I took these needles for salseparine. This base is not soluble in water, and crystalizes in needle-form. So when you force water between the glass plates where salseparine is contained, this base is precipitated in the form of needle crystals, following the law of chemistry that every body contained in excess in a menstrum is precipitated in the form of crystals or of amorphous granules.

In the incrustations of the liber cells of Cinchona (Fig. 216) we encounter also salts, but these are in an amorphous state. Without doubt quinine is to be found there. By the addition of a drop of sulphuric acid the quinine combines with it and forms sulphate of quinine, which being less soluble in water precipitates in very fine needles. At the same time we see that between the layers at the inside of the cellulose membrane (Fig. 216) there appears a series of [Fig. 216.]

holes which grow larger and more numerous, leaving, of the entire cell and its layer, only a mere shadow.

4. Chlorophyl grains are little roundish bodies of a greenish color. They are disseminated in most fresh vegetable cells, and abound particularly in those which are nearer the outer surface of the plant. By oxydation the green color turns yellow and red. The chlorophyl is the matter which gives to foliage its beautiful hues:

in spring, green in all its variations; in the fall, yellow, and all transition stages to scarlet.

5. Granular substances are found in many cells. Sometimes these granules are composed of starchy matters, as detected by their coloring blue with iodine: at other times it is very difficult to study their composition. I remarked in some cases an active movement of these granules, by their changing their places in respect to one another and to larger bodies in the interior of the cells.

6. Gases. Under the covering plate in our microscopical researches gases present themselves, all alike, as bubbles of sharp contour. Chemistry only can tell us what gas is the generator of the bubble in question. In the plants, as it is known, we meet with carbonic acid, oxygen, and atmospheric air.

For a carbonic acid bubble, we have a test in a solution of chloro-barium (Ba. Cl.) in which carbonic acid makes a precipitate of carbonate of barium, which has the form of fine granules. Oxygen, we know, is the gas par excellence" which is present in vegetable tissues.

66

In dry vegetables I found gas; in living plants I did not detect any free gas-bubbles. It is probable that the oxygen and carbonic acid, the two grand factors in the life of the plants, are merely in solution in the sap, like the carbonic acid in the blood of the lung blood-vessels, and not in the form of free gas.

7. The last and most important part of the cell contents is the nucleus or cytoblast.

Schleiden says: 66 In all tender hairs, almost in every growing portion of cellular tissue in the entire leaves of mosses, especially in Sphagnum, we find in every cell, fastened to the inner wall, a small, mostly plano-convex or lenticular, sharply defined body, strikingly different from all other contents of the cell. This is the cytoblast."

When perfectly formed it is a flat lenticular, sharply defined, pale yellow body, in which it is easy to distinguish one or two, seldom three, sharply defined, and evidently hollow, corpuscles, which are called "nucleoli."

I was not able to discover the cytoblast in leaves of a moss (Hypnum molluscum). I observed at one end a sharper yellowish hue, which in the first moment I took for a cytoblast, but an ampler enlargement showed that it was only the interference of the light in the rounded corner of the cell. In another moss (Sphagnum fimbriatum) it is otherwise. The cells of the top, which are evidently of more recent building, are without any trace of a cytoblast, whereas in those of ancient date nearer the root,

In the hair of the Geranium stem (Fig. 161), in many pith cells of the same (Fig. 217), and of Cactus, the cytoblast was very manifest.

I must state that I was unable to discover a cytoblast in all cells which contained salt in form of crystal, or in that of layers, fibres, or pores, in the cells of ancient date, as the starch cells of the roots which I considered in this paper.

The fungus offers a good material for studying the cytoblast. In fungus-cells we find one or more cytoblasts, and we can easily observe their dividing into two, four, etc.

I did not observe a cytoblast attached to the wall of the primitive utricle and forming an integral part of it, as related by Schleiden.

We have now passed in review successively all parts of the vegetable cell. I never found, and perhaps there does not exist, a cell which contains all the substances mentioned at once.

VEGETATION seems to extend much farther toward the north, than toward the south pole; thus in Lapland, the Fir-tree extends to 70 deg.; the White-birch to 70 deg. 40 min., and the Dwarf-birch 71 deg.; whereas, in the same degrees of south latitute vegetation is almost wholly wanting. Even in Deception Island, 62 deg. 50 min. south latitude, only Lichens are met with, and no longer any species of grass; and in Cockburn's Island, lat. 64 deg. 12 min., only Lichens and a few mosses are to be found. On the contrary, in the Arctic zone, ten species of flowering plants were found on Walden Island, 80 deg. north latitude.

"NATURE seems to have accumulated all the beauties of form in the stately Palm, whose smooth and slender stems rise to a height of from 60 to 75 feet, projecting like a colonnade above the dense mass of the surrounding foliage. The leaves of some species incline vertically upwards to a height of 16 to 17 feet, aud are curled at the extremities in a kind of feathery tuft. The flower-buds burst forth, in all Palms, from the stem immediately beneath the leaves."

WILD RICE, or INDIAN RICE. (Zizania aquatica, L.)

The muddy borders of lakes and slow streams in the Northwestern States produce a species of wild Rice (Zizania aquatica), nearly related to the cultivated grain. It is especially abundant in the small lakes which abound in Minnesota, and is there a means of subsistence for the Indians. It grows usually four to six feet high, sometimes, however, reaching the height of eight or ten feet. The grain is produced from pistillate flowers on the upper branches of the flowering stalk, the lower branches bearing only the staminate flowers. The grain is smaller than that of the cultivated rice, but is said to be sweet and well-flavored, but acquires a scorched taste from the manner of removing the husks.

We find in the Youth's Companion an article by Helen C. Weeks, which gives an extremely interesting account of the manner of collecting and preparing the grain for food by the Indians of Minnesota. We give below the principal portion of the article referred to:

"Some months later, in early September, we left Red Lake, and journeyed by canoe from that point to Leech Lake, a hundred miles and more, below. The route lies through a chain of small lakes, connected by streams, sometimes large and sometimes small, but quite as often separated by belts of land called 'portages.'

"At times a field of wild Rice may be found in some shallow spot near the middle of the lakes, but oftener it grows nearer the shore, sometimes many acres together, the long, slender stalks, with their reddish-brown heads of grain rising high above one's head, as the canoe sweeps through them.

"The wives of our Indian boatmen set out at the same time as ourselves for a rice-field in Midge's Lake, and as they row more swiftly than the men, we found them there at work, when we started the next morning, after our first night's camping out on its shores.

Curious to see the whole operation we waited here an hour or two. In the bottom of the middle of the canoe was laid the blanket; and as the canoe was paddled slowly through the field by one woman, the other, kneeling and holding two sticks, shaped like small paddles, bent over the heads of rice with one, while with the other she brushed out the ripe grains, which fell into the blanket. As it gradually fills, the women paddle to some point on the shore, where a fire is lighted, and the great copper kettle, bought at British forts in Hudson's Bay territory, and only owned by the most well-to-do among them, is swung over it to heat. Into this, when almost red-hot, the rice is poured, and constantly stirred with a small paddle till the husks are scorched off, and the grain thoroughly parched. It is from this process that the scorched taste comes, for freed from the husk in the same way as the Southern rice, it would be quite as sweet. Once roasted, it is put up in bags woven from rushes, and holding generally about half a bushel."

NOTES FROM CORRESPONDENTS.

Kentucky Coffee Tree. -The tree mentioned in the June number of the AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST as growing near Cardiff, Onondago Co., N. Y., is Gymnocladus Canadensis, or the Kentucky Coffee Tree, a very rare tree in this State. Gov. Dewitt Clinton must have been mistaken if he supposed the trees in question were a species of Zanthoxylum.

WHITE FRUITED FRAGARIA.-We have a Fragaria growing here that resembles F. vesca in every respect except the color of the fruit, which is always white. In Skaneateles, in this State, there are literally millions of these plants growing in the fields, always with white fruit, and showing no signs of varying into the proper form of Fragaria vesca. Is this white-fruited form common in other localities? If it should be found to retain its white fruit in all places would this constitute it a new species? SAM'L N. COWLES.

SKANEATELES, N. Y., Aug., 1870.

[The mere character of color is not sufficient to establish a specific distinction. We would be glad to have information from other correspondents as to the frequency of this variety of Strawberry.-ED.]

Botanical Notes from Southern Illinois, No. 2. Since writing my last I have observed, about the bluffs in Union county, Lespedeza repens and Galactea mollis, both occurring abundantly. In the lower grounds along streams, the first herbaceous plant in bloom is the little Erigenia bulbosa, the harbinger of spring, which often pushes up its cluster of tiny blossoms while its leaves are yet unfolded, and sometimes before they are even above the ground. Its early appearance is the more striking, since it belongs to an order whose other representatives bloom in midsummer.

Upon the faces of southward-sloping hills, I have seen masses of Phlox bifida in bloom as early as the 25th of March. Later comes the Synandra grandiflora, the largest and most beautiful of our labiate flowers, growing in profusion along the Drury and its tributaries. Stagnant pools are often filled with Ranunculus oblongifolius, while in low grounds everywhere occur Delphinium tricorne and Trillium erectum, var. album. The Delphinium is always deep purple with us, and the Trillium white throughout. Scattered through damp woods, and growing in masses at the bases of bluffs, I find Pogonia pendula, curious, like all the fantastic Orchis family to which it belongs, and interesting also for its rarity elsewhere. Most of these plants, with many others interesting and beautiful, may be found in the Stone-Fort Valley, a narrow creek bottom bordered by perpendicular walls of rock, near Makanda, in Jackson county. Opposite an ancient fortification, from which the valley takes its name-a relic of the early French or Spanish voyageurs-is the only spot where the Saxifraga mentioned in your August number has yet been seen. The scarred and buttressed bluffs of this valley are rich in mosses and ferns, lichens and liverworts.

In swampy ground is sometimes seen Pancratium rotatum, almost worthy to contest the palm for beauty and fragrance with the peerless White Water-lily. It does not bloom here until July or August. It furnishes an illustration of the ingenious care which Nature sometimes takes to secure the direct fertilization of the ovule, a process which, in other cases, she is equally careful to leave to the chance assistance of insects, or the fickle

winds. The thickened points of the three outer divisions of the calyx are curiously notched, so as to hold the tips of the sepals together until the anthers have discharged their pollen and the impregnation of the ovule is made certain; and then the flower opens, usually with a sudden spring. A very common plant in low grounds is Desmodium pauciflorum, remarkable as being perhaps the only member of the sub-order Papilionacea whose petals are entirely distinct.

In thickets I find Sicyos angulatus, and in the drier woods Coreopsis auriculata, Archangelica hirsuta, Fedia radiata, Cynthia Virginica, Corallorhiza odontorhiza (rare), and Lithospermum latifolium, the latter widely scattered through the forests of Jackson county. Sabbatia angularis often appears here with pure white flowers.

Among the common roadside plants are Heliophytum Indicum and Eupatorium serotinum. At the base of bluffs appears Polymnia Canadensis; and in rich and shaded soil Phacelia bipinnatifida, bearing round racemes of light-blue flowers, but coarse in foliage and offensively rank in smell. Very common, not in swamps, but by banks of streams and in low open grounds everywhere, is Ludwigia alternifolia.

The flora of the Mississippi bottoms is not so varied and peculiar as that of the higher lands. Almost the only unusual plants which I have observed there are Myriophyllum heterophyllum and Hottonia inflata, occurring in stagnant ponds. Jussiaa repens occurs somewhat rarely here, but is very common further south.

The tortuous and shallow lakes, lying usually near the eastern boundary of the bottoms, are filled with the ordinary vegetation of quiet waters. I have seen acres of their expanse gorgeous with the purple and green-andgold of the Pickerel-weed, and some are filled with the stately and beautiful Nelumbium luteum, the under surfaces of whose broad peltate leaves, when swept by the wind, flash in the sun like silver. More commonly, however, they are simply bordered with the Arrow Arum, and the yellow and white Pond-lilies; while the dark-brown surface of the open spaces will be starred with the golden blossoms of the larger Utricularia. On the borders of Grassy Lake I found Anemone Pennsylvanica and Smilax tamnoides, and upon the summits of some Indian burial mounds on Running Lake, the only specimens of Gleditschia monosperma I have seen in the county. I will add to the above list a few I observed in Franklin county, as Polygala Nuttallii and P. ambigua, both very common; Myriophyllum scabratum in swamps, and in thickets upon the hills Phaseolus pauciflorus, Stachys palustris, varieties aspera and glabra; Asclepias purpurascens; Croton capitatum by roadsides; Smilax pseudochina, and a Herpestris, not rotundifolia. S. A. FORBES.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Plants to Name-Daniel Witter, Denver, Colorado.— I inclose the flower, seed-pod and a branch of a very beautiful and singular plant which grows most luxuriantly on our driest and most sandy plains. I would like much to know its name. Its root is perennial, I think, and runs down to a great depth. I have seen bunches of it from one root 8 feet across and 3 feet high.

Ans. The specimen sent was Ipomea leptophylla, or what might be called the Western Morning-glory. It occurs frequently on the "Great Plains," and when in flower presents a beautiful appearance.

THE YEAR'S INTERMISSION.

We have been highly pleased at the numerous gratulatory letters which have come to hand since our last number was sent out. General regret is expressed, and some few of our subscribers express the fear that the publication of our journal will never be recommenced. Indeed, some of our contemporaries have even announced that the "AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST has been discontinued." Now we must here reiterate that which we have already announced. Our journal is not discontinued, but simply suspended for one year, in accordance with the desires of both publishers and editors. Like those insects which, after an active larval period, go through a pupal stage during which the life functions are in great part suspended, and which yet afterwards burst forth in all their glory and perfection; so we intend that our journal, after its temporary suspension, shall in due time appear, before those who signify their desire to receive it, in a more attractive and perfect form.

It is because of this our firm intention that we desire all those who contemplate taking Volume III to send in their names (not the money) at once to the publishers. The greater the list the more we shall feel encouraged to go on, and every present subscriber who desires the success of our enterprise should endeavor to send in at least one more name with his or her own.

In taking temporary leave of our readers we cannot forbear to express our sincere thanks to those editors who have so favorably noticed this paper, and to the many friends who, by their contributions and aid in other ways, have laid us under lasting obligations.

BOUND VOLUMES.-The publishers will furnish this volume complete and nicely bound for $2.50 per copy. Only about 20 copies of Vol. I remain, which will be disposed of at the same price.

NO. 12.

INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-VINE.-No. 13.

The Grape-leaf Gall-louse, (Phylloxera vitifolia, Fitch.)

Here we have an insect, the life-history of which is as interesting to the entomologist as its devastations are alarming to the grape-grower. We have given it considerable attention the past summer, and though it is a difficult task to present definite and satisfactory information from among the multitude of facts we have obtained, yet we shall endeavor to lay before our readers a comprehensive account of this little louse, so far as our present knowledge of it will permit. In doing so we are made painfully aware that there is much room left for further observations, and he who will patiently and persistently devote his time for a few years to its study, and will with candor and accuracy give to the world the results, will doubtless be rewarded by new and important discoveries, and will render valuable service to the cause of science and of economic entomology.

The first reference to this insect was briefly made by Dr. Fitch, of New York, in the year 1856, and he subsequently described it in a very insufficient manner, under the name of Pemphi

*

N. Y. Rep. I, p. 158.