Missouri Botanical Garden Ninth Annual Report

Abstract

ADMINISTRATIVE details occupy but a small part of this report, the chief contents being a collection of scientific papers and notes on interesting plants, illustrated by several half-tone plates. The results of the studies of the American Lemnaceæ occurring north of Mexico, by various botanists, are brought together by Mr. C. H. Thompson, and are combined with his own researches into a revision of the order. Mr. H. C. Irish contributes to the report a revision of the genus Capsicum, with especial reference to garden varieties. Mr. J. N. Rose describes five species of agaves which flowered in the Washington Botanic Garden in 1897, and were identified by him. One of these (A. Washingtonensis) appears to have been hitherto undescribed. Among the notes, Mr. William Trelease, the Director of the Gardens, records some interesting observations on Yuccas. He points out that Yucca gigantea is distinct from Y. gloriosa and Y. Guatemalensis—its nearest allies—and gives a figure of an Azorean specimen which is a good example of the species. With reference to the extent of the pollination of Yuccas by the Yucca moth, Mr. Trelease has now obtained information which proves the moth to be “the active agent in the pollination of Yuccas from Florida northward as far as fruit is set as a result of Pronuba activity, westward as far as southern California, and into the mountains of northern Mexico to the south.”