Why Thuja occiden-talis came to be known as "Arborvitae" has long been a puzzle to the botanists. In the proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, just issued, there is a note showing that the tree was distributed by King Francis the First, of France, under the name of Arbre de vie, between 1534 and 1547 (when he died), and that it was probably received through Jacques Carder's expedition. Reference is made to the Indian remedy which, during the terrible winter sufferings of the band, saved the lives of a remnant from death by scurvy. This tree, compared by Carder's editor to a French oak, Quercus ilex, in size, is supposed by modern botanists to have been the white spruce, Abies alba, and that the remedy was simply spruce beer. The note shows that this is improbable, and the author hazards a guess that the arborvitae was the life-saving herb, and the facts account for the origin of the name. - Independent.