Mr. Wm. Muir, Fox Creek, St. Louis Co., Missouri, writes: " I enclose portion of vine of Dioscorea Batatas, with seed vessels and bulblets. I have cultivated the Dioscorea Batatas since about 1858, and occasionally noticed a vine thus to 'sport.' Believing that it is thought that we have only the 'male plant' in this country, the tendency to variation is curious. I have tried to vegetate the capsules, but something always interfered; still I hope to have some so perfect as to vegetate".

[Thanks for the specimen - we have never seen a fertile one before. The change of sex as it is commonly called - that is to say, the appearance of male or female flowers on plants wholly of the opposite sex - is not of unfrequent occurrence, though over a quarter of a century ago, when the change of sex in the strawberry was before the public, it was as much as people could do to give credit to the fact, even when so able a botanist as Dr. Wm. Darlington had to tell the Cincinnati Horticultural Society he had some reason for believing it. It only requires an occasional glance at some of these old issues to discover that the world of intelligence does move. - Ed. G. M].