QUERCUS ACUMINATA.--The Chestnut or Yellow Oak (name in Gray’s Manual Quercus Muhlenbergii) is described as “a tall tree with thin _flaky_ bark” (Gray), or “a tree with gray _flaky_ bark” (Britton); and in fact many of the White Oaks are said to have “_flaky_” bark. The Quercus acuminata is very abundant in central Ohio and is of common occurrence in many parts of the State. It is rare that the “flakiness” of the bark or a tendency to separate in plates, is pronounced or conspicuous in our Chestnut Oak trees. The single good example I have found is here shown in Fig. 1 reproduced from a photograph of a specimen growing in Hayden’s ravine near Columbus. Both trees shown are the same species but the smaller one has merely furrowed, not flaky, bark, and it is a fair representative of the trunks of this Oak as they occur in our vicinity. The usual form of bark is perhaps more clearly shown in Fig. 2, which is from a photograph of a large tree standing near the Horticultural Hall of the Ohio State University. This specimen has leaves remarkably narrow for Q. acuminata but the trunk is similar in appearance to the trees which have broad leaves. [Illustration: _Fig. 1._] [Illustration: _Fig. 2._] HELIANTHUS MAXIMILIANI.--Maximilian’s Sunflower whose habitat and range are given in Britton and Brown’s Illustrated Flora as “on dry prairies, Minnesota, and Manitoba to the Northwest Territory, Nebraska and Texas” may be said to be out of place in Ohio. Yet Mr. R. F. Griggs found it (a single plant) in the season of 1900 (cf. O. S. U. NATURALIST, 1:16) at Sandusky, Erie County. In a package of interesting plants sent to the State Herbarium recently by Mr. Otto Hacker, fine herbarium specimens of this conspicuous species were furnished. Mr. Hacker says that he observed it near Painesville (Lake County) six or seven years ago by railway tracks, where it is still flourishing. LOTUS CORNICULATUS.--This European Lotus, with such common names as Bird’s foot, Trefoil, Ground Honeysuckle, Bloom-fell, Crowtoes, Cat’s-clover, and Sheepfoot, was collected at Painesville by Mr. Otto Hacker in nursery grounds. This is the second time this waif has been recorded for Ohio, the first case being reported by Mr. Ricksecker, of Oberlin. NEWS AND NOTES. Prof. Thomas A. Williams, editor-in-chief of the Asa Gray Bulletin and assistant chief of the Division of Agrostology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, died on the morning of Dec. 23, 1900.