Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/103

Rh have sixteen species of trees yielding wood heavier than water. Nearly all of these are in the Southern States, and several are confined to the extreme south of Florida, which is a tropical or sub-tropical region. The Southern pine (Pinus palustris, L.), from which we get an excellent lumber, besides pitch, tar, turpentine, etc., is nearly twice as heavy as the Northern or white pine (Pinus strobits, L.). The very hardy box-elder yields only a light wood. It would seem that firmness of texture and great specific gravity of wood are not characteristics that accompany ability to induce wide ranges of conditions and sudden changes in temperature.

The little everlasting, with leaves like the plantain, although covered with a soft, silky wool, is the earliest representative of the largest of all the natural orders of flowering plants, the Compositæ or sunflower family. It does not announce its coming into bloom by any display of showy colors, and the young naturalist could be forgiven for either not seeing it, or not desiring to struggle with it, through the bewildering maze of the key to the genera of this difficult order.

The Viola cucullata of Aiton has gone, and in its place we must write V. palmata, var. cucullata. Dr. Gray, in his recent revision of the North American violets, of which he finds thirty-three species, has restored Viola palmata of Linnæus. This is a very variable species. There seems to be no part of leaf or flower that is not subject to a wide range of variation, unless we except the three-valved pod with its single cavity. Many species of violets are remarkable for a second kind of flowers, which are inconspicuous, closed, and self-fertile. They may be found in all stages of development beneath the soil and throughout the growing season. Last autumn the writer gathered a quantity of the seed from the underground pods and mixed them with seeds from pods produced by the ordinary flowers, and no one of the many persons to whom the mixture was submitted could detect any difference. Yesterday (October 14th) a class of one hundred students in elementary botany analyzed the Viola palmata, L. Abundant material for this exercise was obtained on a piece of land near a railroad that had been burned over during the prolonged drought which lasted for more than two months in midsummer. The plants having passed through so severe a season, which was followed by abundant warm rains, perhaps have been deceived, and are arrayed in the garb they had prepared for spring. The form with entire leaves—the old V. cucullata—tinge the bank of the railroad-track with their unusually high-colored flowers, while the palmata is abundant on the higher land. The V. delphinifolia (Nutt.) is our most common violet of spring, but it has not been found in bloom this autumn, nor has any other than the ones mentioned been reported, although we have eight or more species and some varieties in the State.

The 20th of the month of showers, of smiles and tears, as the poet would say or has said, brought out the Amelanchier Canadensis