A St. Louis correspondent says : " I have often thought of those former articles in your paper concerning the discrepancy among observers as to the native habitat or former localities of the noble aquatic, the Nelumbium luteum. When I first came here, sixteen years ago, this plant was very common all around the city, growing in numerous ponds, to be met with everywhere. Now it is quite scarce, and on many of these ponds where there were formerly acres of it, now not a plant is to be found - caused by the ponds drying up for one or two consecutive seasons. The plants die out, root and branch, and do not seem to reproduce themselves from seed in the same ponds when moisture returns, although they formerly seeded abundantly. Only in deeper and more enduring water are they to be found now. The same is also true of the Pontedera."