New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-05-31
BOTANISTS AFIELD.
Il Day on Long Island acith the Tor
req Club members.


The Torrey Botanical Club of New-York holds
regular Saturday matinees afield from May to Oc-
tober The organization consists of studous men
and who deem it necessary to cover
great deal of territory in the course OF year
In order 70 keep pace with the developments IN
the vegetable kingdom, which. under the lnna-
ences OF cultivation and environment. they say
are more rapid than in any other branch OF sci
ence.
A noteworthy instance of this is shown by the
spread Of Solanum rostratum Inc coiol0uo
beetle, better and widely known as the most
voracious and altogether reprehensible of potato
bugs formerly lived in the State from when ne
received his name, and fed chiefly upon the weed
called by the scientists Solanum rostratum Inc
potato was introduced into the country Of the
beetle. and he found its juicy foliage so much
more to his liking than plain mountainsde sola-
that he changed his diet and came East
where potatoes more plentiful. as rapidly
his legs, wings and convenient railway 1re1ght
could carry him. The weed thrived after the
beetle tired Of it. and has spread considerably but
was not known to exist Long Island until the
Torrey club investigators found specimen on the
farm of John McCallum near Central Park. re
Gently. 1t had not been moested by the potato
bugs, the vicinity abounds in the food for
which the soanum was abandoned by their fore
fathers
Contrary to the popular notion about such mat
tiers, the blossom chasers of the Torrey club do
plunge straghtaway into the woods the mo-
ment the train which they have gone to the
country stops They a mile two of railway
roadside whenever the opportunity is presented
for there is where they find the plants not indigo
the region. The wind everywhere blows
seed on and into freight cars. and other winds
blow it off out again. often thousands of miles
from its habitat Sometimes a car stands open
several days on sidetrack in the Far West while
receiving a cargo for distant point and
many kinds of seeds blow into it. It is then closed
sealed and sent its way. When it Is unloaded
he Uhic hay
the floor left. it goes back open and other
wise empty. As it bounds along rough track in
a high wind these seeds may be scattered on the
ground. and if the soil is adapted their require
ments and the season is right plants spring up by
the wayside mature and the seeds thus produced
are scattered more less widely. In due time
naturalization with other plants of a kindred ma
ture occurs and something previously unknown is
born to gladden. the hearts of the keen eyed stu
dents of botany who may happen to come that
way.
On a recent Saturday when the Torrey club
members visited Central Park. Long Island. they
had just left the train when Miss Murray uttered
an exclamation of surprise and jumped off the
platform to pluck half dozen specimens Of
what is sometimes called Nantucket clover.
This is scarce everywhere, and none was supposed
to have ever rooted in Long Island soil Doubt
less imported" CALCULATED John McCallum, the
guide but a good find for Central Park, any
where else on the island. There cank of tin
box lids as each of the women slowed away
specimen.
a reporter who had been admitted the
pany derived so much enthusiasm from this Incl
dent that when he a bunch of common red
clover just over a barbed wire fence he secured
it by sacrifice of trousers material out Of all pro-
portion to the worth of the handful he held up to
be admired What's this?" he inquired, as he dis
tributed the stalks among the party. "Cowfeed
Mr.. McCallum replied with dryness.
Numerous specimens OF Tissa rubra, delicate
little lilac tinted flower, found near the rail-
way tracks. and Miss Jacobs bounced upon good
specimen OF Ipecacuanha euphorbia, the plant from
which the emetic much used in Group is derived
Several varieties of blue-eyed grass, which. by the
way. the botanists admitted, isn't grass at all,
grew in profusion by the roadside. Many speci-
mems of Commando umbeIata, a plant some
what plentiful in the vicinity, were gathered by
the women who greatly admired its tiny white
flowers, but the wild geraniums were too numer-
command more than passing notice
Little attention paid TO the specimens Of
Poyganum commutatum which grew in favored
places as they were yet in flower. This is a
species of lily which. its suggests, is none
too circumspect in its domestic habits. Passing
notice only accorded to the abundant hnaria
canadense, with its delicate little blue bloom, the
everywhere present little cnquefoil called Poten-
tilla and the Prunus Virginica, or chokeberry
which might have been gathered in bloom by the |
CARLOAD
A big Clump OF a scrubby reddish brown plant |
the embankment about half mile west of the |
Central Park station attracted immediate atten- |
ton. Everybody wanted TO know what it was, but |
until Mr.. McCalum, the guide. volunteered the in
formation that it was Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, |
or bearberry the whole club stumped. Mr., |
McCalum then informed the party that. except !
this clump and a larger growth Deer Park,
eral miles to the eastward, there |
bearberry anywhere on Long Island. 1t is need |
less to say that trowels piled industriously |
for a few seconds, and that the tin box lids |
clanked merrfly as they closed upon specimens of
Dr.. John Hendley Barnhart of Tarrytown. n.
!. the publisher Of the Torrey club literature. |
canadense. and his protracted study of its parts
soon brought all the party but one to his side.
lector for the Bronx Botanical Garden, went out |
and, and he had already found so much in the way
was in a brown study Of mis- own several hundred
While DR.. Barnhart and Mr.. McCanum were try
ing TO unravel the Aroma mystery the Misses Muir
f ana JACOBS P5shed their researches in advance
discovered to be devoted to eating molasses candy
habit This %as o soonT
by the other members OF the party than from the
were ished variety of fruits and CONNECTIONS OF
presence in such SeTereIX scientific s9cietV For
lew minutes Latin ceased TO be spoken and the
jecfs of CONVERSATION Little by little tns SEVERITY
OF botanical research was relaxed. and the songs
nodding trees all about were actually seen by
ground at close range that the trifes had escaped
attention. They did their work rapidly and wei.
AFTER 9he af a there WAS VAS more soeia5ity TIA .
later invited the party to his house to have glass
Of milk. Nobody declined the invitation hest
tated TO accept It. Men and alike crawed
between the wires Of the railroad fence and cut
The nest of a thrush was betrayed by her pre-
1ithology One Of the botansts who intimated
nat the bird was sparrow was taken to account
IS blue as the specimens of wild indigo in his