Sarcochilus hartmannii

Sarcochilus hartmannii, commonly known as the large boulder orchid, "ravine orchid, Hartmann's sarcochilus or cliff orchid"', is a lithophytic orchid endemic to eastern Australia. It forms spreading clumps with between four and ten thick, channelled leaves and up to twenty five white flowers with crimson spots near the centre.
Description.
"Sarcochilus hartmannii" is a lithophytic (sometimes an epiphyte or terrestrial) herb with stems long and which forms spreading clumps, usually on rocks. It has between four and ten thick, channelled linear to oblong or triangular leaves long and wide. Between five and twenty five white flowers with crimson spots near the centre, long and wide are crowded on an arching flowering stem long. The sepal are long and wide, the petals long and wide. The labellum is long, thick and waxy with three lobes. The side lobes are erect, about high and wide and the middle lobe is short and fleshy. Flowering occurs between September and November.
Taxonomy and naming.
"Sarcochilus hartmannii" was first formally described in 1874 by Ferdinand von Mueller and the description was published in "Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae" from a specimen collected near Toowoomba by Carl Heinrich Hartmann. The specific epithet ("hartmannii") honours the collector of the type specimen.
Distribution and habitat.
The large boulder orchid usually grows on boulders and cliffs, rarely on trees or cycads. It is found between Gympie in south-east Queensland and the Richmond River in New South Wales.
Conservation.
This orchid is classed as "vulnerable" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and the New South Wales Government Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. The main threats to the species are illegal collecting and weed invasion.


Agaricus subrutilescens

Agaricus subrutilescens, also known as the wine-colored agaricus, is a mushroom of the genus "Agaricus". It was first described scientifically in 1925 as "Psalliota subrutilescens", and later transferred to "Agaricus" in 1938.
Description.
"Agaricus subrutilescens" has a cap that is across, dry, and has many and wine to brown colored fibers, especially near the center. The gills are close and white at first, turning dark brown in age. The stalk has a skirt-like ring and is long, thick, long, white, and covered with soft woolly scales. The flesh is white and does not stain, and the odor and taste is pleasant.
The purplish fibrous cap and shaggy white stem differentiate this mushroom from others which resemble it.
This mushroom is regarded variously described as an excellent edible mushroom, inedible, or responsible for causing gastric upset.
Habitat and distribution.
The mushroom fruits in undisturbed mixed woods in Western North America and Japan. It grows by itself or scattered in small clusters, often under redwood, pine, or alder.
Recently this mushroom has been identified in New Zealand and Australia.


Stackhousia clementii

Stackhousia clementii is a species of plant in the family Celastraceae.
The dense perennial herb typically grows to a height of and produces yellow-green-brown flowers.
The species is found across western and central Australia.


Tabernaemontana coffeoides

Tabernaemontana coffeoides is a species of flowering plant in the Apocynaceae family. It grows as a shrub or small tree up to tall, with a trunk diameter of up to . Its fragrant flowers feature white corolla lobes. Its habitat is on dunes or on rocks in dry forest, bush or savanna from sea level to altitude. Local medicinal uses include for weight loss and to combat fatigue. "Tabernaemontana coffeoides" is native to Seychelles, the Comoros and Madagascar. It is also rich in pharmacologically interesting indole alkaloids.


Freetown-Fall River State Forest

The Freetown-Fall River State Forest (commonly shortened to Freetown State Forest) is a publicly owned forest covering more than in the city of Fall River and the towns of Freetown and Lakeville in the state of Massachusetts. The forest lies mostly in the center of the town of Freetown (about a third of the town) dividing Assonet, East Freetown, and Fall River's northernmost boundary. The forest land includes Profile Rock, a granite outcropping which local Native Americans believe to be the image of Chief Massasoit, and a Wampanoag reservation. The forest is owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and operated by the Department of Conservation and Recreation with headquarters in Assonet.
History.
The state first acquired land in Assonet for forest purposes in 1913, purchasing approximately nine acres on Forge Pond from Levi Churchill of Berkley. The majority of the land was acquired over twenty years beginning in the 1930s. The Civilian Conservation Corps worked on the property from 1935 to 1937. A statue was dedicated in honor of the program and its efforts in the forest in September, 2002.
Recent additions to the forest have included 87 acres (2012), 29 acres (2015), and 77 acres (2015) in Assonet and 613 acres (2015) in Lakeville.
Activities and amenities.
The forest has more than of unpaved roads and trails for walking, hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, dog sledding, off-road vehicle, and equestrian use. A picnic area with wading pool, playing fields and restrooms is located near the main entrance. Rattlesnake Brook is stocked with brook trout in spring. Hunting is available on a restricted basis.
The forest is home to the annual "Fun Day in the Forest" event sponsored by the Friends of the Freetown-Fall River State Forest. For a number of years, it also served as the course for the Big Bang Mountain Bike Race, a benefit event for the Independence Day events in Freetown.
In the news.
The Freetown State Forest has suffered fires on several occasions. In September 1980, a fire burned approximately of woodland adjacent to and in the state forest over the course of a week. Fires in 1988 and 1991 burned an estimated each, while a fire in March, 1976 destroyed an estimated . The last major fire occurred on April 30, 2001, when fire destroyed between 90 and of the forest. Most of the fires were put out on April 30, while small fires continued into May 1.
The Freetown State Forest has been the location of several crimes and incidents. Due to these events, the forest has become associated with the so-called "Bridgewater Triangle"
In November, 1978, the body of Mary Lou Arruda, a 15-year-old cheerleader abducted from Raynham, Massachusetts that September, was discovered tied to a tree in the state forest. James M. Kater of Brockton, previously convicted of kidnapping in 1967, was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Arruda in 1979. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturned the verdict, and he was convicted again in 1986. The verdict once again overturned; he was retried in 1992, with that attempt ending in a mistrial.
In 1980, while investigating another local murder, police had been approached by individuals who claimed to have witnessed Satanic cult activity within the state forest. These reports would have bearing on the fourth Kater trial (1996–2000) which ended with the conviction upheld. In the 1996 trial, the defense charged that police had withheld information relating to the alleged Satanic cult activity, which it claimed could have provided an alternative to Kater.
Three more murders were subsequently related to the state forest. In 1987, a transient drifter mistaken for an undercover police officer was murdered in the forest, and in 2001, two men were found shot to death on Bell Rock Road, which runs through the forest connecting Assonet and Fall River. Two assaults were also reported: a Fall River man in 1991 and a teenager from New Bedford in 1998.
Other incidents include hazardous waste dumping (1996), reports of aggressive abandoned dogs (2006), and reports of an escaped emu wandering the forest (2006). In May 2015, a woman slid 80 feet down a cliff while spray-painting graffiti, broke her ankle, and had to be rescued. In January 2016, an illegally dumped boat was discovered. In May 2016, wire cables were found stretched across the recreational trails, apparently intended to cause harm to off-road motorbike riders.


Erigeron vagus

Erigeron vagus is a high-elevation species of flowering plant in the daisy family known by the common names rambling fleabane.
"Erigeron vagus" is native to the peaks of the western United States where it lives on talus slopes, sometimes above the tree line but other times in open coniferous forests. It has been found in several locations isolated from each other, in eastern California (Sierra Nevada and White Mountains), southern Utah, southern Colorado, northeastern Nevada (Elko County), and northeastern Oregon (Wallowa Mountains).
"Erigeron vagus" is a small perennial herb reaching a maximum height of about five centimeters (2 inches), forming a taproot and a branched underground caudex. Its stem and small patch of basal leaves are covered with glandular hairs. The inflorescence holds a single flower head per stem, each with hairy, purple-tipped phyllaries lining the underside of the head. Each head contains 25–40 white or pink ray florets surrounding many yellow disc florets.


Aspergillus foetidus

Aspergillus foetidus is a species of fungus in the genus "Aspergillus".


Crex Meadows

Crex Meadows is a wildlife area that consists of marshes, wetlands, brush prairies, and forests. Crex Meadows is located in near the village of Grantsburg, Wisconsin, in Burnett County, Wisconsin. Its are home to 270 species of birds and 600 species of plants.
Geological History.
Crex Meadows is included in the Northwest Wisconsin pine barrens. These “barrens” are a large, sandy plain that was left as the glacier withdrew from the area around 13,000 years ago. Crex is located in the southern area of the barrens and contains huge marshes. The Crex Meadows were the result of the glacier that created the early Glacial Lake Grantsburg.
Inhabited History.
The Horicon Marsh area has been inhabited by people, including the Fox, Dakota, and Chippewa Indians who used the region mainly for hunting and gathering. During the 17th century, many Indians battles are thought to have occurred in the area. The Chippewa Indians were the rulers of the land when Europeans first arrived in the area during the 18th century.
Starting in the 19th century, the Euro-Americans tried farming the sandy soil, but gave up defeated The lack of wildfires in the area nearly eliminated the brush prairie. A large drainage project in the 1890s resulted in less nesting and migrating to the area by wetland birds and animals.
In 1912, the Crex Carpet Company bought of today’s Crex Meadows. The company produced grass rugs and created carpet camps in the area. The grass rug business was successful until linoleum floor covering was invented and became popular in homes. Thus, in 1933 the Crex Carpet Company went bankrupt, yet the name of “Crex” lives on.
In 1946, the state of Wisconsin bought of the now tax delinquent land in order to start the Crex Meadows Wildlife Area.
Wildlife.
The National Bird Conservancy categorizes Crex Meadows as one of the top 500 Globally Important Bird Areas in the United States of America. Crex Meadows has a wide variety of bird species and is home to nearly every mammal found in Wisconsin as well as other marsh dwelling species.
Ospreys, eagles, trumpeter swans, Karner blue butterflies, Blandings turtles, and red-necked grebes are some of the endangered and threatened animals that find shelter in Crex Meadows. A specific pack of Timber wolves, nicknamed "the Crex pack," have been breeding and living on the property since 1995. Additionally, the peregrine falcon, Caspian tern, and great egret seasonally make their home at Crex.


Boronia alulata

Boronia alulata is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to Cape York Peninsula. It is an erect shrub with many branches, pinnate leaves and pink or white, four-petalled flowers.
Description.
"Boronia alulata" is an erect shrub that grows to a height of with many branches covered with dense white to yellow, star-shaped hairs but which become glabrous with age. The leaves are pinnate with between five and seventeen elliptic leaflets that are densely hairy on the lower side. The end leaflet is long and wide, the others smaller. The flowers are pink or white and are arranged in leaf axils in groups of up to seven. The groups are borne on a peduncle long, the individual flowers on a pedicel long. The four sepals are narrow triangular, long and wide. The four petals are glabrous, mostly long and wide and more or less hairy on the outer parts of the upper surface. The eight stamens alternate in length, the shorter ones opposite the petals. The fruits are shiny and glabrous, long and about wide.
Taxonomy and naming.
"Boronia alulata" was first formally described in 1863 by George Bentham from an unpublished description by Daniel Solander. The description was published in "Flora Australiensis" from a specimen collected from near the Endeavour River. The specific epithet ("alulata") is the diminutive form of the Latin word "alatus" meaning "winged", hence "with narrow wings".
Distribution and habitat.
This boronia grows in woodland and heath on Cape York Peninsula as far south as near Cooktown.
Conservation.
"Boronia alulata" is classified as "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.


Ananthacorus angustifolius


Billbergia oxysepala

Billbergia oxysepala is a species in the genus "Billbergia". This species is native to Ecuador and to the Brazilian State of Acre.


Diacanthodes

Diacanthodes is a genus of three species of poroid fungi in the family Meruliaceae.
Taxonomy.
The genus was circumscribed by mycologist Rolf Singer in 1945, with "Daedalea philippinensis" as the type species. This fungus was originally described by French mycologist Narcisse Théophile Patouillard] in 1915 as "Daedalea philippinensis".
Description.
Fruit bodies of "Diacanthodes" fungi have circular caps that may be partially funnel-shaped (infudibuliform), and a surface texture ranging from tomentose (covered with densely entangled hairs) to strigose (with stiff, sharp-pointed hairs). The colour of the pore surface is light brown, but it darkens with time.
"Diacanthodes" has a dimitic hyphal system, meaning it contains both generative hyphae and skeletal hyphae. The generative hyphae have clamp connections; the skeletal hyphae are thick-walled to solid, and have a weak dextrinoid reaction. The spores are broadly ellipsoid, ornamented, and dextrinoid.
Leif Ryvarden suggests that "Bondarzewia" may be the genus most closely related to "Diacanthodes", based on morphological similarities. Both genera feature ornamented spores, the same hyphal system, and similar habit. They differ in microscopic characteristics: "Bondartzewia" fungi have clampless generative hyphae, no cystidia, and amyloid spores.
Habitat and distribution.
"Diacanthodes" has a pantropical distribution. Its fruit bodies occur on the ground.


Orestias elegans (plant)

Orestias elegans is a species of orchid. It is found in São Tomé and Príncipe. It is the type species of its genus.


Helenium apterum

Helenium apterum is a North American perennial plant in the sunflower family. It has been found only in the state of Durango in northwestern Mexico. Turner, B. L. 2013. The comps of Mexico. A systematic account of the family Asteraceae (chapter 11: tribe Helenieae). Phytologia Memoirs 16: 1–100
"Helenium apterum" is an perennial herb up to 100 cm (40 inches) tall with thick rootstocks producing only one stem with a single flower head. Leaves at the base can be up to 30 cm (1 foot) long, the leaves higher on the stem much smaller. The head is about 4 cm (1.6 inches) across, with a hemispherical yellow disc surrounded by about 14 yellow ray flowers.


Lignosus

Lignosus is a genus of polypore fungi in the family Polyporaceae. The genus was circumscribed in 1920 by mycologists Curtis Gates Lloyd and Camille Torrend, with "L. sacer" as the type species.
Description.
The fruit bodies of "Lignosus" fungi are annual. They have a cap that is coloured white to brown, with a central supporting stipe. The texture of the cap surface is smooth to very finely tomentose. Pores on the cap underside range in size from small to large. The stipe originates from a sclerotium in the ground. The hyphal system is trimitic. Generative hyphae have clamp connections and are hyaline. There are binding and skeletal hyphae in the context, sclerotium and the stipe. The hymenium lacks cystidia. Spores are smooth, ellipsoid, hyaline, and inamyloid.
"Lignosus" is similar in morphology to "Microporus", but the fungi in this latter genus grow on wood and do not arise from a sclerotium. "Microporus" spores are cylindrical to allantoid (sausage-shaped).
Species.
The genome of the species "L. rhinocerus", the sclerotium of which is used as a traditional medicine in Southeast Asia, was published in 2014. Its genome is enriched with genes involved in the biosynthesis of sesquiterpenoid compounds. Eight species are known in "Lignosus":


Mount Grace State Forest

Mount Grace State Forest is a publicly owned forest with recreational features located in the town of Warwick. The state forest centers around Mount Grace, which at is the third highest point in Massachusetts east of the Connecticut River after Mount Wachusett and Mount Watatic. It is bordered by portions of Warwick State Forest to the east and west and is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
History.
Mount Grace is said to be named after the baby daughter of Mary Rowlandson, a woman captured by Wompanoag warriors during King Philip's War, who according to legend buried her deceased infant at the foot of the mountain during the march to Canada.
By the turn of the 20th century, the mountain had been largely deforested, and conservationists, including former Warwick resident Dr. Paul W. Goldsbury, promoted the idea of having the state purchase it to create a state forest. Picnic and skiing facilities were built beginning in 1930, after legislation for the purchase passed in 1920. Crews with the Civilian Conservation Corps contributed summer and winter recreational features that included a snowshoeing trail.
The summit's fire lookout tower was built in 1939. It is accessible to the public and offers impressive views of the surrounding areas. It is the third tower to have been constructed on Mount Grace.
Activities and amenities.
Forest trails used for hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, and cross-country skiing include a portion of the long-distance Metacomet-Monadnock Trail. The forest also offers picnicking and restricted hunting.


Penicillium sublateritium

Penicillium sublateritium is an anamorph species of fungus in the genus "Penicillium".


Styloceylonius lobatus

Styloceylonius lobatus, is a species of millipedes in the family Pyrgodesmidae. It is endemic to Sri Lanka.


Frerea indica


Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial

Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, formerly named the Custis-Lee Mansion, is a Greek revival style mansion located in Arlington, Virginia, United States that was once the home of Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee. It overlooks the Potomac River and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. During the American Civil War, the grounds of the mansion were selected as the site of Arlington National Cemetery, in part to ensure that Lee would never again be able to return to his home. The United States has since designated the mansion as a National Memorial.
Although the United States Department of the Army controls Arlington National Cemetery, the National Park Service, a component of the United States Department of the Interior, administers Arlington House.
Construction and early history.
The mansion was built on the orders of George Washington Parke Custis, the step-grandson and adopted son of George Washington and only grandson of Martha Custis Washington. Custis became a prominent resident of an area that was then known as Alexandria County, at the time a part of the District of Columbia.
Arlington House was built at a high point on a 1,100-acre (445 ha) estate that Custis's father, John Parke Custis, had purchased in 1778 and named "Mount Washington" ("Jacky" Custis died in 1781 at Yorktown after the British surrender). The younger Custis decided to build his home on the property in 1802 following the death of Martha Washington and three years after the death of George Washington. After acquiring the property, Custis renamed it "Arlington" after the Custis family's homestead on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
Almost immediately, Custis began constructing Arlington House on his land. Hiring George Hadfield as architect, he constructed a mansion exhibiting the first example of Greek Revival architecture in America. Custis intended the mansion to serve as a living memorial to George Washington and a place for his collection of George Washington artifacts. Its design included elements similar to those of George Washington's house, Mount Vernon.
Construction began in 1803, eleven years after L'Enfant's Plan for the future "Federal City" (later called "Washington City", then Washington D.C.) had designated an area directly across the Potomac River to be the site of the "President's House" (later called the "Executive Mansion", now the White House) and the "Congress House" (now the United States Capitol). Custis located the building on a prominent hill overlooking the Georgetown-Alexandria Turnpike (at the approximate location of the present Eisenhower Drive in Arlington National Cemetery), the Potomac River and the growing Washington City on the opposite side of the river. The mansion was built using materials on site, though the building was interrupted by the War of 1812 (and material shortages after the British burned the American capital city). The Custis mansion's exterior was completed in 1818.
The north and south wings were completed in 1804. The large center section and the portico, presenting an imposing front 140 ft (43 m) long, were finished 13 years later. The house has two kitchens, a summer and a winter. The most prominent features of the house are the 8 massive columns of the portico, each 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter.
Guests at the house included such notable people as Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, who visited in 1824 (see: Visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States). At Arlington, Custis experimented with new methods of animal husbandry and other agriculture. The property also included Arlington Spring, a picnic ground on the banks of the Potomac that Custis originally built for private use but later opened to the public, eventually operating it as a commercial enterprise.
Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh. Their only child to survive to adulthood was Mary Anna Randolph Custis. Robert E. Lee, whose mother was a cousin of Mrs. Custis, frequently visited Arlington and knew Mary Anna as they grew up. Two years after graduating from West Point, Lieutenant Lee married Mary Anna Custis at Arlington on June 30, 1831. For 30 years Arlington House was home to the Lees. They spent much of their married life traveling between United States Army duty stations and Arlington, where six of their seven children were born. They shared this home with Mary's parents. After their deaths, Mary's parents were buried not far from the house on land that is now part of Arlington National Cemetery.
The Custises extensively developed the Arlington estate. Much of the steep slope to the east of the house became a cultivated English landscape park, while a large flower garden with an arbor was constructed and planted south of the house. To the west of Arlington House, tall grass and low native plants led down a slope into a natural area of close-growing trees the Custises called "the Grove." About to the west of the flower garden, "the Grove" contained tall elm and oak trees which formed a canopy. An informal flower garden was planted beneath the trees and maintained by the Custis daughters. It is not clear when "the Grove" began to be developed, but it was under way by at least 1853.
Upon George Washington Parke Custis's death in 1857, he left the Arlington estate to Mary Custis Lee for her lifetime and thence to the Lees' eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee. The estate needed much repair and reorganization, and Robert E. Lee, as executor of Custis's will, took a three-year leave of absence from the Army to begin the necessary agricultural and financial improvements.
Civil War.
In April 1861, Virginia seceded from the United States. Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army on April 20, 1861, and joined the Confederate States Army. With Arlington House on high ground overlooking the capital, the government of the United States knew it must occupy the mansion or be left in an untenable military position. Although unwilling to leave Arlington House, Mary Lee believed her estate would soon be occupied by federal soldiers and left to stay with relatives on May 14, having been warned by her young cousin William Orton Williams, then serving as aide to General Winfield Scott. Union Army troops seized and occupied Arlington without opposition on May 24.
In June 1862, the 37th United States Congress enacted legislation that imposed a property tax on all land in "insurrectionary" areas of the United States. The 1863 amendments to the statute required these taxes to be paid in person. But Mary Lee, afflicted with severe rheumatoid arthritis and behind Confederate lines, could not pay the tax in person. The Arlington estate was seized for nonpayment of taxes. It was auctioned off on January 11, 1864, and the U.S. government won the property for $26,800 ($ today).
During the war, Union Army troops cut down many of the trees on the Arlington estate, especially those to the north and east of Arlington House in and near Fort Whipple (north of the house) and Arlington Springs (near the Potomac River). However, a number of large trees remained, particularly those in a forested area (now known as Arlington Woods) west of the house.
By early 1864, the military cemeteries of Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Virginia, were rapidly filling with war dead. Quartermaster General of the United States Army Montgomery C. Meigs proposed using of the Arlington estate as a cemetery. United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton approved the establishment of a military cemetery on June 15, 1864, creating Arlington National Cemetery. Meigs believed that since Lee had committed treason in deciding to fight against the Union, denying Lee use of the mansion after the war was a rough form of justice. Meigs decided that a large number of burials should occur close to Arlington House to render it unlivable. Officers were to be buried next to the main flower garden south of the house, and the first burial occurred here on May 17. Meigs ordered that additional burials commence immediately on the grounds of Arlington House in mid-June. When Union officers bivouacked in the mansion complained and had the burials temporarily stopped, Meigs countermanded their orders and had another 44 dead officers buried along the southern and eastern sides of the main flower garden within a month.
In September 1866, the remains of 2,111 Union and Confederate soldiers who died at the First Battle of Bull Run, Second Battle of Bull Run, and along the Rappahannock River were buried on the former site of "the Grove", southeast of the mansion, beneath the Civil War Unknowns Monument.
Post-Civil War.
Robert E. Lee made no attempt to visit or restore his title to Arlington before his death in 1870. Mary Lee died in 1873, having visited the house only one more time, a few months before her death. Too upset at its condition, she refused to enter and left after just a few moments.
In April 1874, Robert E. Lee's eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee, filed suit against the United States government in a Virginia circuit court to regain his property. Custis Lee was a major general in the Civil War and was captured by Union forces at the Battle of Sailor's Creek on April 6, 1865 (see David Dunnels White). A jury found in favor of Custis Lee, leading to extensive appeals by both parties. In 1882, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of Lee in "United States v. Lee", 106 U. S. 196. The court, by a 5–4 majority, found that the estate had been "illegally confiscated" in 1864 and ordered it returned. But Lee was less interested in obtaining the estate than he was in a cash compensation for its value. After several months of difficult negotiations, Lee and the federal government settled on a sale price of $150,000 ($ in dollars). Congress enacted legislation funding the purchase on March 3, 1883; Lee signed over the title on March 31; and the title transfer was recorded on May 14, 1883.
In 1920, the Virginia General Assembly changed the name of Alexandria County to Arlington County to end ongoing confusion between Alexandria County and the independent city of Alexandria. The name Arlington was chosen to reflect the presence of the Arlington estate.
On March 4, 1925, the 68th United States Congress enacted Public Resolution 74, which authorized the restoration of the Lee Mansion in the Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. The War Department then began to restore Arlington House, and the Department of the Army continues to manage over half of the original plantation's , as Arlington National Cemetery. However, for several years after Congress enacted the authorizing legislation, the War Department, which was responsible for managing the house and grounds, largely ignored the legislation. Contradicting the authorizing legislation, the Department, largely at the insistence of Charles Moore, the director of the United States Commission of Fine Arts, furnished and interpreted the Mansion to “the first half of the republic.” This decision was based, in part, on the popularity of the Colonial Revival movement which was still popular in 1925. The Mansion was restored to the period of George Washington Parke Custis, and no furniture manufactured after 1830 was accepted. This approach negated Lee's role and presence at Arlington.
In 1955, the 84th United States Congress enacted Public Law 84-107, a joint resolution that designated the manor as the "Custis-Lee Mansion" as a permanent memorial to Robert E. Lee. The resolution directed the United States Secretary of the Interior to erect on the premises a memorial plaque and to correct governmental records to bring them into compliance with the designation, "thus ensuring that the correct interpretation of its history would be applied". Gradually the house was furnished and interpreted to the period of Robert E. Lee as specified in the original legislation.
The National Park Service received jurisdiction over the building and some of adjacent gardens (distinguished from the cemetery) beginning June 10, 1933.
In 1972, the 92nd United States Congress enacted Public Law 92-333, an Act that amended Public Law 84-107 to designate the manor as "Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial".
Gray family.
One of the lesser known histories about Arlington House concerns the Gray family, who helped to preserve the legacy of George Washington Parke Custis as well as the Lee family. Selina Norris Gray, the daughter of Leonard and Sally Norris, was a second-generation Arlington slave. In 1831, Selina married Thornton Gray, a fellow Arlington slave, and eventually had eight children who grew up at Arlington. With the onset of the Civil War, the Lee family had to evacuate their home before the Union troops came and occupied the property. Even though Selina was a personal maid to Mrs. Lee, she and her family were left behind; however, before leaving, Mrs. Lee left the house keys to Selina and the responsibility to protect the treasures of the home. Several of these treasures included cherished family heirlooms that had once belonged to Mrs. Lee's great-grandmother, Martha Custis Washington, and President George Washington.
Within months of Union Army General Irvin McDowell occupying the home in 1861, Selina realized that several precious heirlooms were missing due to soldiers looting the property. When she discovered that some of the Washington relics had also disappeared, she promptly provided a list of the missing objects to General McDowell and convinced him that the significance of the collection required his involvement. He first secured the attic and basement areas to prevent further theft, then had the remaining Lee heirlooms shipped to the Patent Office in Washington, D.C for safekeeping. While Selina is credited with saving the heirlooms and treasures of Arlington House, her children later on are credited with helping to restore the home as well as provide accurate details about the layout of the home, personal stories of the Lee family, and help preservationists in the early twentieth century.
During major restorative efforts to Arlington House from 1929 to 1930, the Gray family made another important contribution to the history of Arlington County and the nation. Four of Selina and Thornton's daughters provided crucial details about the house and its furnishings, and their input proved vital to the authenticity of the project. In 2014, the National Park Service acquired a rare photograph of Selina.
Recent history.
Arlington National Cemetery expansion.
In 1995, officials of the United States Department of the Interior and the United States Department of the Army signed an agreement to transfer from Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, to the Army a part of Arlington Woods, which was located in Section 29 of the NPS at Arlington National Cemetery between Arlington House and Fort Myer. The property transfer, which involved of NPS land, was intended to enable the Cemetery to increase its space for burials.
Environmentalists expressed concerns that the agreement would result in the partial destruction of the remnant of an historically important stand of native trees. Nevertheless, Congress enacted legislation in September 1996 authorizing the transfer.
On June 5, 2013, after reviewing 100 public comments that it had received on a draft environmental assessment (EA) for the Cemetery expansion project, the United States Army Corps of Engineers released a final EA and a signed Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the project. The final EA stated that, of the 905 trees to be removed, 771 trees were healthy native trees that had diameters between 6 and 41 inches. The project would remove approximately 211 trees from a less than area containing a portion of a 145-year-old forest that stood within the property boundaries of a historic district that a National Register of Historic Places nomination form for Arlington House had described in 1966. About 491 trees would be removed from an area of trees that was approximately 105 years old. At a public hearing on July 11, 2013, the National Capital Planning Commission approved the site and building plans for the project.
Studies, damages and restorations.
From 2003 to 2007, the National Park Service conducted an archeological excavation of two outbuildings that once held Arlington House's slave quarters. In 2009, the Park Service published reports that described the history of the slave quarters and the findings of the excavations, as well as proposals for the restoration of the quarters.
From 2007 through 2013, Arlington House underwent its first renovation since 1925. During that period, the National Park Services placed the House's furnishings on display at the Friendship Hill National Historic Site near Point Marion, Pennsylvania. The Park Service held a rededication ceremony after it had completed the renovation and returned the furnishings to the House.
Arlington House suffered significant damage in the 2011 Virginia earthquake, requiring the closure of the back halls and upper floor pending an architectural assessment. On July 17, 2014, philanthropist David Rubenstein donated $12.5 million to the National Park Foundation (the arm of the National Park Service which raises funds through private contributions) to rehabilitate Arlington House, its outbuildings, and grounds. The 30-month project is intended to restore the mansion, buildings, and grounds to the way they looked in 1860. The project will repair the earthquake-damaged foundation, and add new interior lighting and a modern climate-control system. National Park Service officials said they are likely to close Arlington House and the slave quarters for several months in 2016, during which most of the work will be done.
Replicas.
In 1919, a replica was built for the short-lived Lanier University in Atlanta, designed by architect A. Ten Eyck Brown. It is still standing at 1140 University Drive NE, and houses the Ben H. Zimmerman Religious School and the Canterbury School. Arlington Hall, a two-thirds scale replica of Arlington House, was built in 1939 in Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas, Texas.
The façade of the Old Administration Building in Arlington National Cemetery resembles that of Arlington House. The building is west of Arlington House.


Isolepis aucklandica

Isolepis aucklandica is a species of flowering plant in the Cyperaceae family. It is native to New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Macquarie Island, the French Southern Territories of Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands, and New Guinea.
Description.
It is a creeping, bright green, leafy, rhizomatous sedge which forms large patches of turf. The culms (10.0–80.0 by about 0.5 mm) are a bright green above, but red-brown towards the base. There are up to 6 leaves per culm, and the leaves are usually longer than the culms. The sheaths are often streaked with red, and sometimes entirely a dark red-purple. The inflorescence consists 1–2 narrow-oblong spikelets (1.0–4.0 by 0.5–2 mm) which are partly hidden by the base of the subtending bract which is up to 5 times length of spikelet. There are three stamens and three style-branches . The shining nut is 1–2 mm long by about 0.5 mm wide, triangular in cross-section with rounded angles, almost white to yellowish, or grey- to red-brown, and it tapers towards its black tip.
It flowers from October to December and fruits from November to May.
Habitat.
It is found on the coast and up to 1300 m altitude, in boggy ground in forests and wetlands and seepages.
Distribution.
Within Australia, it is found in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.
Conservation status.
This species was classified as "Not Threatened" in 2012 under the New Zealand Threat Classification System., and again in 2018.


Dioon purpusii

Dioon purpusii (Purpus' cycad) is a cycad tree endemic to a very small region in Mexico (Oaxaca, Puebla). It is found in Tomellín Canyon and the eastern branches of La Cañada de Cuicatlán.
Name.
The epithet "purpusii", chosen by Joseph Nelson Rose, is an homage to one of Rose's contemporaries, colleague Carl Albert Purpus (1851–1941) ("cf. Echeveria setosa" ).
Description.
"Dioon purpusii" grows about 5 meters high or taller, with a dbh about 40 cm being typical.
The leaves of "D. purpusii" look like long (80 to 160 cm.) feathers sprouting from the top of the trunk at odd angles. They are compound, and can be flat or keel-shaped, and are a dark, lusterless gray-green. Each leaf is composed of a rachis with between 150 and 260 narrow (about 7–12 cm. long, 8–10 mm. wide), inserted leaflets attached. The leaflets are arranged along the somewhat flattened rachis in matching symmetrical pairs without alteration. They do not grow perfectly perpendicular to their rachis, but point up and away from the petiole, all at approximately the same angle (this can be 120 degrees, 180 degrees, or any angle in between). The first five to twenty centimeters (depending on the overall length of the leaf) are fully formed leaflets, which are straightly lanceolate with flat, dentate margins; those growing towards and at the end of the rachis reduce to mere spines.
Seeing the difference between male and female cones is not difficult with "D. purpusii". The seed cones (female) are large (35–45 cm.; 15–20 cm. diam.), pale brown and ovoid and contain similarly shaped seeds (3–4 cm. x 2.5–3.5 cm.) with cream-colored or white sarcotestas. The green or pallidly brown pollen cones (male) are long (20–30 cm.), narrow (7 or 8 cm. diam.), and also ovoid.
Distribution.
The species is endemic to the Mexican state of Oaxaca, where it occurs in Tomellin Canyon near the villages of Santa Catarina and Tomellin and in the Sierra Mixteca. The locations are in dry, tropical deciduous forest, mostly in the shade of trees. Mostly they grow on the steep rocky slopes of deep gorges together with cacti, agaves and "Beaucarnea" in 1000 to 1500 meters sea level. The annual precipitation amounts to 500 to 1000 mm and falls predominantly in the summer. Temperatures range from 20 to 30 °C in summer and 10 to 20 °C in winter.
In this area, it occurs in colonies rich in individuals that are scattered throughout the area. The area is relatively inaccessible. Sites and plants are hardly disturbed, the local population uses the leaves only on Palm Sunday.
Pests.
Infestations of "Aulacaspis yasumatsui", otherwise known as "cycad aulacaspis scale", have been known to affect "D. purpusii".
Conservation status.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has assessed its status (2003) as "Vulnerable", with numbers trending downwards.


Kitchell Park

Kitchell Park is a park which is listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places. The park is in the city of Pana, Illinois, located in Christian County. This is the home of the Pana stoners. A facility, Kitchell is one of the city's main parks. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
History.
Kitchell Park was given to the city of Pana by John W. Kitchell and his wife Mary Little Kitchell in 1908. It is home to several unique and old features. The round Chautauqua Pavilion was built in 1911 and has attracted such speakers as William Jennings Bryan, World War I hero Sergeant York and Billy Sunday among others. The Schuyler Bridge was constructed entirely of concrete in 1910. The park's ornate main gate acted as the entrance booth for the Tri-County Fair which was held on park grounds from 1885 until it moved to its present fairgrounds in 1949. Part of the park's original horse track is still one of the main roads through the park. The story is that Frank James of the Missouri Gang was starter and timekeeper at the track in his later years, after he was pardoned by authorities.
Today the park is home to tennis courts, a disc golf course, softball and baseball diamonds, a swimming pool, playgrounds and a picnic area. The park's auditorium is the result of a deluge, 6.5 inches of rain, that fell on the area in 1910. It was felt that if the pavilion were to survive adequate shelter would need to be provided. At the time of its construction the auditorium was called one of the most modern in the nation with its seating capacity of 3,500 and 35 X stage. The auditorium was renovated in 1955 through funding from the Pana Lions Club. New paint, a concrete floor and rewiring for the installation of 24 overhead lights were all included in the project.


Ponerorchis bifoliata

Ponerorchis bifoliatum (synonym "Amitostigma bifoliatum") is a species of plant in the family Orchidaceae. It is endemic to China, known only from Gansu and Sichuan. It produces pale purple flowers.
Taxonomy.
The species was first described in 1936 by Tsin Tang and Fa Tsuan Wang, as "Amitostigma bifoliatum". A molecular phylogenetic study in 2014 found that species of "Amitostigma", "Neottianthe" and "Ponerorchis" were mixed together in a single clade, making none of the three genera monophyletic as then circumscribed. "Amitostigma" and "Neottianthe" were subsumed into "Ponerorchis", with this species becoming "Ponerorchis bifoliata".


Aechmea brevicollis

Aechmea brevicollis is a plant species in the genus "Aechmea". It is native to Colombia, Venezuela, and northern Brazil.


Graddonia coracina


Yadana gas field

The Yadana gas field is an offshore gas field in the Andaman Sea. It is located about offshore to the nearest landfall in Myanmar. The gas field is an important source of revenue for the Myanmar Army. Gas from Yadana is used to generate about 8 percent of the electricity in neighbouring Thailand and around half of all electricity in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon.
Description.
The Yadana gas field contains more than 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas and has an expected field life of over 30 years. In 2009, the output averaged .
The gas field lies around beneath the seabed in the water depth around . The offshore production complex consist of two remote wellhead platforms, one bridge-linked wellhead platform, a production platform, a living quarters platform, and a medium compression platform. Produced gas is exported through two pipelines. The first, pipeline runs underwater from Yadana to Daminseik at the coast. From there, a onshore section runs to the Thai border at Pilok. The onshore section crosses a region inhabited by the Karen, a minority ethnic group hostile to the government. Construction of the pipeline was completed in 1998 and it cost US$1.2 billion. This pipeline has capacity of .
The second, pipeline from the Yadana to Yangon was inaugurated on 12 June 2010. The pipeline has offshore and long onshore sections. The pipeline has capacity of .
Project company.
The Yadana gas field and pipelines are operated by Total S.A., a French energy group, with Chevron Corporation, a United States-based company, as its junior partner along with PTT, a Thai state-owned oil and gas company, and Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), a state-owned enterprise of Myanmar. Operator of the gas field is Total. Total has working interest of 31.2%, Chevron 28.3%, PTT 25.5%, and MOGE 15%.
Controversy.
The Yadana project has been subject to much criticism in the international community, particularly because companies of democratic nations invested in a regime that has been noted for its human rights violations. The State Law and Order Restoration Council came under intense scrutiny for their human rights abuses during the construction of the pipeline and their involvement in the project led to a lawsuit being filed against Unocal. Evidence collected by EarthRights International suggests that villagers are routinely forced to work in various guises. One former soldier from the 273 battalion said : "We were told it was a 30-year project and the country got half, and the foreigners got half of the benefit. We ask the villagers to carry shell ammunition, food and supplies. During the portering the soldiers treat porters not so good. I do not want to mention about these bad things so much since I myself I have done it to these people as well at that time." Troops routinely force civilians to work for them and those who refuse are often beaten, tortured or sometimes killed. Since early 2009 Burmese soldiers have ordered villagers to build a new police camp. "The Yadana project ushered in the Burmese army and the Burmese army continues to provide security for the companies and the project. The Total company has been complicit in abuses," said Matthew Smith of ERI.
The 2006 documentary "Total Denial" depicted the controversy surrounding the construction of the Yadana pipeline.


Typha przewalskii

Typha przewalskii is a plant species native to the Manchuria Region of northeastern China (Provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning) and also to the Primorye region in the Russian Far East. The plant grows in freshwater marshes and along the banks of lakes and streams.


Micranthes texana

Micranthes texana, commonly called Texas saxifrage, is a species of plant in the saxifrage family that is native to Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana and Nebraska with a disjunct occurrence in Georgia.


Prasophyllum fitzgeraldii

Prasophyllum fitzgeraldii, commonly known as FitzGerald's leek orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to South Australia. It has a single tube-shaped leaf and up to thirty five green or reddish-brown flowers with a pink to purple labellum. It was previously thought to also occur in Victoria.
Description.
"Prasophyllum fitzgeraldii" is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single tube-shaped leaf which is long and wide. Between fifteen and thirty five scented, green or reddish-brown flowers are arranged on a flowering spike long, reaching to a height of . The flowers are long and wide. As with others in the genus, the flowers are inverted so that the labellum is above the column rather than below it. The dorsal sepal is broadly lance-shaped, long and about wide. The lateral sepals are lance-shaped, long, about wide and free from each other. The petals are linear, long and wide. The labellum is pink to purple, egg-shaped, about long, wide and turns upward at 90° about half-way along. The upturned part is crinkled and there is a fleshy, purplish-green callus in the centre and extending past the bend. Flowering occurs in October and November.
Taxonomy and naming.
"Prasophyllum fitzgeraldii" was first formally described in 1909 by Richard Sanders Rogers and Joseph Maiden and the description was published in "Transactions, proceedings and report, Royal Society of South Australia" from a specimen collected in the Sandy Creek Conservation Park. The specific epithet ("fitzgeraldii") honours the orchidologist Robert D. FitzGerald.
Distribution and habitat.
FitzGerald's leek orchid grows in grassland, heath and forest in the south-east of South Australia. It was previously thought to also occur in Victoria, but the plants growing there are now thought to be of "Prasophyllum roseum", a species described in 2017.


Alafia orientalis

Alafia orientalis is a plant in the family Apocynaceae.
Description.
"Alafia orientalis" grows as a liana. Its flowers feature a white corolla, sometimes reddish on the outside. The fruit is grey with paired follicles, each up to long.
Distribution and habitat.
"Alafia orientalis" is native to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Its habitat is dense forest.


Amblyseius perlongisetus

Amblyseius perlongisetus is a species of mite in the family Phytoseiidae.


Sebastiania klotzschiana

Sebastiania klotzschiana is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. It was originally described as "Gymnanthes klotzschiana" in 1863. It is native to Brazil and northern Argentina.


Darwinia polycephala

Darwinia polycephala is a plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae and is endemic to Western Australia.
The shrub has a diffuse habit and typically grows to height of . It blooms between March and September producing red to purple flowers.
Often found on flat areas and around the margins of salt lakes in the southern Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia where it grows in sandy or clay soils.


Fumaria occidentalis

Fumaria occidentalis, the western ramping-fumitory, is a species of flowering plant in the genus "Fumaria" that is endemic to Cornwall. It is the largest of the British fumitories, and was discovered in 1904.
Distribution.
"Fumaria occidentalis" is restricted to "the warmest districts in Cornwall", comprising the westernmost parts of mainland Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, from near Padstow around Land's End towards The Lizard. Within the Isles of Scilly, it only occurs on St. Mary's, although there are historical records of its occurrence on St. Martin's.
Description and ecology.
"Fumaria occidentalis" is the largest fumitory to grow in the United Kingdom, with flowers long. Their petals are initially whitish (except the dark pink tips), becoming pink later; the sepals are by , and toothed towards the base. Its fruit are also larger than those of the other British species of "Fumaria", at up to .
"Fumaria occidentalis" is an annual plant, flowering from March on the Isles of Scilly, but in May or June on the Cornish mainland. It can be locally abundant in various types of arable and waste land, including field edges and Cornish hedges.
Taxonomy.
"Fumaria occidentalis" was first described by Herbert William Pugsley in 1904. In 1902, Pugsley had seen herbarium specimens that he could not assign to any British species, and encountered the plant in person in 1904 while in Cornwall "for a short holiday". The botanist Eliza Standerwick Gregory was also credited with the discovery of the Cornish fumitory. She reported that she found it on the edge of a wood at Lelant according to F. Hamilton Davey's 1909 "Flora of Cornwall".
It is closely related to Mediterranean taxa such as "Fumaria agraria".


Suillus albidipes

Suillus albidipes is a species of edible mushroom in the genus "Suillus" native to North America.


Suillus ochraceoroseus

Suillus ochraceoroseus is a species of mushroom in the genus "Suillus". It is edible, and similar in appearance to "S. lakei".
Taxonomy.
The species was first described by Wally Snell as Boletinus ochraceoroseus in 1941, based on specimens he had collected near Smith Creek in Idaho. René Pomerleau and Alexander H. Smith transferred it to "Fuscoboletinus" in 1962. In 1973, Rolf Singer transferred the species to "Suillus".


Madhuca pallida

Madhuca pallida is a tree in the family Sapotaceae. The specific epithet "pallida" means "pale in colour", referring to the leaves.
Description.
"Madhuca pallida" grows up to tall, with a trunk diameter of up to . The bark is dark brown. Inflorescences bear up to eight bright yellowish-green flowers.
Distribution and habitat.
"Madhuca pallida" is native to Sumatra and Borneo. Its habitat is mixed dipterocarp forest to altitude.
Conservation.
"Madhuca pallida" has been assessed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. The species is threatened by logging and conversion of land for palm oil plantations.


Marshall State Fish and Wildlife Area

Marshall State Fish and Wildlife Area is an Illinois state park on in Marshall County, Illinois, United States.


Elliott Laurel

Elliott Laurel is a open space preserve located in Phillipston, Massachusetts. The property, notable for its extensive stands of mountain laurel, is managed by the land conservation non-profit organization The Trustees of Reservations. Elliott Laurel also contains woodlands, ledges, boulders, and a hayfield.
History and recreation.
The reserve is named for Frederick W. Elliott, who donated the original acreage to the Trustees of Reservations in 1941. Additional property was purchased in 1972.
Elliott Laurel is open to hiking, cross country skiing, and hunting (in season). A network of trails loop through the reservation and ascend to a scenic vista along a series of ledges.


Jatropha macrantha

Jatropha macrantha, also called the "huanarpo macho", is a medium size shrubby tree species in the genus "Jatropha" with orange red flowers. It is indigenous to Peru. It is as popular in Peru as Muira Puama is in Brazil.
Catechin, catechin-7-O-β-glucopyranoside and procyanidin B3 can be found in Huanarpo Macho.


Daviesia nudiflora

Daviesia nudiflora is a shrub in the family Fabaceae. It is endemic to Western Australia. There are three accepted subspecies:
Description.
"Daviesia nudiflora" grows from 0.3 m to 1.5 m high. Its pea is an orange/yellow & red/brown and it flowers from June to September. It has flat phyllodes with pungent points, and the phyllodes are distinct from the stems. It grows on sandy soils, clayey soils and laterite, and is found on undulating low rises and flats.
Distribution.
Beard’s Provinces: South-West Province, or <br>
IBRA Regions: Avon Wheatbelt, Swan Coastal Plain.
Etymology.
The genus name, "Daviesia", honours Hugh Davies (1739–1821), a Welsh botanist. The specific epithet, "nudiflora" is derived from the Latin: "nudus" (naked) and "flos" (flower), creating a compound Latin adjective to describe this "naked-flowered" "Daviesia".


Gaz de France

Gaz de France (GDF) was a French company which produced, transported and sold natural gas around the world, especially in France, its main market. The company was also particularly active in Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other European countries. Through its part-owned Belgian subsidiary SPE it was also involved in nuclear power generation. The company conducted a merger of equals with fellow utility company Suez on 22 July 2008 to form GDF Suez. Its head office was located in the 17th arrondissement of Paris.
History.
Gaz de France was created with its sister company Électricité de France (EDF) in 1946 by the French Government. After the liberalisation of Europe’s energy markets, Gaz de France also entered into the electricity sector, having developed combined natural gas-electricity offerings.
With part-privatisation EDF and Gaz de France latterly became two totally separate entities, with each controlling a distribution subsidiary responsible for running its distribution system. For Gaz de France, this was the Gaz de France Distributor. Together, these two distributors managed a joint department, “EDF Gaz de France Distribution” formerly called “EDF GDF Services, which was responsible for field-based activities (meter reading, activating connections, engineering work, etc.). In January 2008 EDF Gaz de France Distribution was split into two entities: ErDF (Électricité réseau distribution France), 100% owned by EDF, and GrDF (Gaz réseau distribution France), wholly owned by Gaz de France (and now by GDF Suez).
The company's capital was partially floated on the Paris Stock Exchange in July 2005, raising €2.5 billion for the State of France. The government continued to hold an approximate 80% stake in the company until the 2008 merger with Suez. The French state now holds approximately 35.7% of GDF Suez.
Merger with Suez.
On 25 February 2006 French Prime minister Dominique de Villepin announced the merger of Suez and GDF, which would make the world's largest liquefied natural gas company. Since the French state owned over 80% of Gaz de France, it was necessary to pass a new law in order to make the merger possible. The merger was overseen by R N Rothschild & Sons Investment Bank.
On 3 September 2007, Gaz de France and Suez announced agreed terms of merger, on the basis of an exchange of 21 Gaz de France shares for 22 Suez shares via the absorption of Suez by Gaz de France. The French state would hold more than 35% of shares of the merged company, GDF Suez.
Whilst Nicolas Sarkozy was for several months opposed to the Villepin government’s plans for a merger of the two companies, he subsequently accepted the government proposal. This plan for a merger between Gaz de France and Suez came under fire from the whole of the political left, which feared the loss of one of the last ways of preventing the price rises experienced over the previous three years, and by the social Gaullists and trade unions. In retaliation, the opposition submitted 137,449 amendments to the plan. Under normal parliamentary procedure, parliament would have been required to vote on the amendments, which would have taken 10 years. The French Constitution does give the government options to bypass such a filibuster, but in the end these were not used.
Law No. 2006-1537 of 7 December 2006 on the energy sector authorised the privatisation of Gaz de France. On 2 September 2007 the boards of directors of Gaz de France and Suez approved the new framework for the planned merger between the companies. The newly created company, GDF Suez, came into existence on 22 July 2008; the world's second-largest utility and a group of €74 billion of revenues.
Head office.
Gaz de France's head office was located in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. The company took possession of the building, built in the late 1950s, in the early 1960s.


Lestrolepis japonica

Lestrolepis japonica is a species of Aulopiformes in the family Paralepididae.


Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge

Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge is the largest protected area of natural habitat left in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The refuge is located almost entirely in Cameron County, Texas (near Harlingen), although a very small part of its northernmost point extends into southern Willacy County.
Fauna.
The Peregrine Fund began reintroducing captive-bred northern aplomado falcons ("Falco femoralis septentrionalis") to the refuge in 1985, which had been nearly extirpated from the Southwestern United States; today, it is home to 26 pairs. Nine other endangered or threatened species inhabit the refuge, such as the Texas ocelot ("Leopardus pardalis albescens") and Gulf Coast jaguarundi ("Puma yagouaroundi cacomitli"), rare wild cats. Programs at the refuge include vegetation and wetland restoration.


Taphrina padi

Taphrina padi is a fungal plant pathogen that induces the form of pocket plum gall that occurs on bird cherry ("Prunus padus"). The gall is a chemically induced distortion of the fruits, which are swollen, hollow, curved and greatly elongated, without a seed or stone, but retaining the style. The twigs on infected plants may also be deformed with small strap-shaped leaves.
Hosts.
"Taphrina padi", a 'tongue fungus', produces a distinctive, elongated, tongue-like growth on bird cherry, similar to other closely related species such as "Taphrina alni" on ader ("Alnus glutinosa") and "Taphrina pruni" on blackthorn ("Prunus spinosa"). The growth is the distorted fruit and not the fungus itself.
Distribution.
The gall is widely distributed, and may be under recorded in the United Kingdom, but it is found throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere. "T. padi" has been recorded in India.
Structure and appearance.
Fruits.
These galls are usually known as 'pocket plums', however alternatives are 'starved plums'; 'bladder bullace; and 'mock plums'. The gall appears on the developing fruit, rendering it inedible and resulting in an elongated, curved, hollow, stone-less gall, usually light green in colour at first; turning brown as the gall develops. In "T. padi" an identification characteristic is that the style persists at the tip of the gall.
The surface of the gall eventually becomes corrugate and coated with the fungus, showing as a white bloom of ascospore producing hyphae. The totally inedible fruits shrivel and most fall.
Stems.
Stems bearing deformed fruit may also thicken and grow with a deformation. The leaves are smaller and strap-like and shoots may be swollen, pale yellow and tinged with red. The fungus may also cause dense clusters of live and dead twig, called "witches' brooms". Some authors suggest these are caused by the very similar "Taphrina insititia".
Life cycle.
The airborne spores released from the whitish 'bloom' on the fruit are thought to settle in the host's bark and bud scales, growing at first without causing obvious signs, but in the spring the fungus invades the plant tissues, causing swollen and deformed shoots. The fungus remains in these as a mycelium. The gall inducing fungus then grows into the flowers and the developing fruit. The cycle then repeats itself.
The fungus infects the ovaries causing a pseudo-pollination and an enhanced cell division, resulting in the infested fruit being larger than the healthy one.
Infestations of galls.
As a fungus, cool and wet weather conditions promote the germination of spores, while warm and dry weather results in infection rarely taking place.
Removing and destroying the galls may help to reduce the infestation. Colonisation can become extensive and eradication very difficult. The disease can to some degree be controlled by carefully removing infected branches, witches' brooms and fruit before the infective air-borne spores are produced.
Applications of copper-containing fungicides have a degree of control over the tongue-fungi.


Hydnellum complicatum

Hydnellum complicatum is a tooth fungus in the family Bankeraceae. Found in North America, it was described as new to science by mycologist Howard James Banker in 1906 from collections made in New York. Banker, who described the fruitbody as "irregular and complicated", considered it closely related to "H. floriforme", differing in its reddish color and smaller spores.


Tylopilus albofarinaceus

Tylopilus albofarinaceus is a bolete fungus in the family Boletaceae found in China. It was described as new to science in 1948 by Wei-Fan Chiu as a species of "Boletus"; F.L. Tai transferred it to the genus "Tylopilus" in 1979. The fruit body has a convex, white cap that is up to in diameter. The tubes on the cap underside are 3 mm long, while the pores are about 0.7–1 mm wide. The flesh in the stipe is white and does not change color with injury. It has ellipsoid spores measuring 11–14 by 5–7 µm. The type collection was made in Kunming in August 1938.


Ponca State Park

Ponca State Park is a public recreation area located on the banks of the Missouri River north of Ponca, Nebraska, in the northeastern corner of the state. The state park's approximately are situated among high bluffs and steep, forested hills adjacent to the Missouri National Recreational River. The park is managed by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
History.
The park was created in 1934 when of land were donated under the sponsorship of Ponca Legion Post 117. In 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps began developing the site. The park and town bear the name of the Ponca tribe, who inhabited the area before European settlement, and whose chief, Standing Bear, won a celebrated court battle to have the Indian declared a "person" under U.S. law.
Natural history.
The park is noted for its biodiversity. Eastern woodland flowers such as bloodroot, Canada violet, phlox and sweet cicely can be found growing among prairie plants, including yucca, clover, and larkspur. The wild plum and gooseberry thickets were also noted by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, who passed these bluffs with their Corps of Discovery in the summer of 1804. Forested ravines and hillsides contain bur oak, basswood, elm, black walnut and hackberry. White-tailed deer and wild turkey are commonly seen. Coyotes, red and gray foxes, raccoons and bobcats might also be spotted. This area is also known for the concentrations of waterfowl that congregate during the spring and fall migrations. The barred owl is a vocal resident, and wintering bald eagles are often sighted.
Activities and amenities.
Twenty-two miles of hiking and biking trails wind through the deep ravines and hilltop ridges of the park. The Three State Overlook offers a scenic blufftop view of Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. An interactive museum at park headquarters includes exhibits about the Missouri River and its history. The park offers a fishing pond, swimming pool, campgrounds, and cabins.


Carex concinnoides

Carex concinnoides is a species of sedge known by the common name northwestern sedge. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California, where it can be found in moist or dry habitat, often in woodland and forested slopes, on silty and clay soils. This sedge produces loose clumps of stems up to about 35 centimeters in maximum height from long rhizomes. The leaves are thick but narrow, sickle-shaped, and pale green in color. Inflorescences occur at the stem tips, and some pistillate inflorescences grow from nodes along the stem. The spikelets have purplish bracts. The pistillate flowers have four stigmas on each pistil, an identifying characteristic. The fruit is coated in a sac called a perigynium, which is white to light brown in color, purple-tipped, and covered in hairs.


Constitution Square Historic Site

Constitution Square Historic Site is a park and open-air museum in Danville, Kentucky. From 1937 to 2012, it was a part of the Kentucky state park system and operated by the Kentucky Department of Parks. When dedicated in 1942, it was known as John G. Weisiger Memorial State Park, honoring the brother of Emma Weisiger, who donated the land for the park. Later, it was known as Constitution Square State Shrine and then Constitution Square State Historic Site. On March 6, 2012, the Department of Parks ceded control of the site to the county government of Boyle County, Kentucky, and its name was then changed to Constitution Square Historic Site.
The park celebrates the early political history of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It features replicas of three buildings that stood on the original city square, including the courthouse that housed ten constitutional conventions between 1785 and 1792; these conventions ultimately led to Kentucky's separation from Virginia. It also includes the original building that housed the first U.S. post office west of the Allegheny Mountains and several other early 19th century buildings of historical import. The site comprises the majority of the Constitution Square Historic District which was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 2, 1976. Among the annual events held at the site are the Great American Brass Band Festival and the Kentucky State Barbecue Festival.
History.
In 1774, a group of pioneers led by James Harrod constructed Fort Harrod (now Harrodsburg, Kentucky), the first permanent settlement in Kentucky. Three of these settlers – Thomas Harrod, John Crow, and James Brown – claimed the land in and around the present-day city of Danville, Kentucky, soon after. In 1784, Crow deeded of land to Walker Daniel – Danville's namesake – to form the city proper. The city square was designated on a portion of this plot near its eastern end – not near the center, as was typical of other cities at the time. This location, about from John Crow's Station, provided an escape route in the event of an Indian attack.
The Virginia General Assembly created the Judicial District of Kentucky in 1783. Harrodsburg was designated as the district's first seat of justice, but because of inadequate facilities in Harrodsburg, the Supreme Court for the District of Kentucky moved its next session to Crow's Station and ordered the construction of a courthouse there. The courthouse was built on what is now Constitution Square in March 1785, and the court convened there regularly until its dissolution when Kentucky gained statehood in 1792.
The square fell into disuse after the district court disbanded, and, in 1817, the city's trustees sold half of the city square to raise money for the establishment of an educational institution known as Danville Academy. The money was to be used to buy at least of land within of the square on which to locate the academy. On February 13, 1818, the trustees voted to sell the other half of the square and allocate the money to the same purpose. There is no record that Danville Academy was ever established, however; advocates of the academy's establishment apparently combined their efforts with those of the individuals who established Centre College in Danville, and the funds that had been designated for the founding of Danville Academy were re-allocated to Centre.
Danville's trustees also voted to give free use of the courthouse in the square to a group of Freemasons in 1817. The trustees sold another portion of the square near Main Street for the construction of private residences in 1823, and the Freemasons purchased the courthouse and the land it occupied in 1828. A group of Methodists purchased the land from the Freemasons in 1834, and they subsequently sold it to a Reverend Adams the following year. Adams purchased two adjacent plots and founded an all-female academy which ultimately failed. In 1854, the Danville Theological Seminary moved from the campus of Centre College to Constitution Square, occupying many of the buildings there. The brick courthouse became the main building of the seminary, and during the Civil War, it was used as a hospital to treat wounded soldiers – both Union and Confederate – in the aftermath of the Battle of Perryville. Danville Theological Seminary remained in operation until 1878. After its closure, the main building deteriorated and was eventually razed.
Creation of the park.
On October 15, 1937, Danville resident Emma Weisiger donated the land that comprises Constitution Square Historic Site to the Commonwealth of Kentucky in memory of her brother, John. The state made the land into a state park; it was originally called Old Public Square, then Constitutional Square. Using a combination of state and local funds, the Danville Chamber of Commerce and the local chapter of the American Legion began constructing replicas of the jail, courthouse, and meetinghouse that originally occupied the square. At the time of the park's dedication on April 20, 1942, it was dubbed the John G. Weisiger Memorial State Park. Later, the name was changed to Constitution Square State Shrine. At the time of the dedication ceremony, all non-essential construction projects in the U.S. had been halted by the War Production Board due to the country's entry into World War II, and renovations to the park's attractions had consequently ceased. Dedication speeches by Governor Keen Johnson and Centre College president Robert L. McLeod, Jr. contained reminders of the ongoing war and praise for the ideals of democracy. In addition, a plaque honoring the framers of the first Kentucky Constitution was dedicated by Louisville judge Lafon Allen and unveiled by Johnson's daughter, Judith, and Louise McDowell, a descendant of Judge Samuel McDowell, who presided over all ten constitutional conventions that took place in the original Constitution Square courthouse.
After the war ended with the defeat of Japan in 1945, the ban on nonessential construction was lifted, and the state restarted construction and restoration activities in Constitution Square in 1948. These activities included restoring and re-roofing the buildings, adding furniture to the buildings, constructing walkways, erecting signs, and adding landscaping to the park. The restorations were completed in 1955. From 1960 to 1968, the state added a fence around the site, installed a new lighting and diorama system, constructed a replica of the square's original pillory, and renovated several buildings, including an early 19th-century brick schoolhouse which became the caretaker's residence.
In the 1970s, Centre College president Thomas A. Spragens began a series of urban renewal projects in Danville using grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. One such project was the expansion of Constitution Square and the restoration of some of its key features. Part of First Street was closed to accommodate the expansion, and the African-American business district, which lay on Constitution Square facing the Ephraim McDowell House, was razed. Grayson's Tavern, Fisher's row houses, the Goldsmith House, and the brick schoolhouse were renovated, and the Governor's Circle was added to the site. A bronze statue depicting two men shaking hands, a symbol taken from the state seal, stands in the middle of the Governor's Circle. Plaques that honor each governor of the state encircle the statue. The entirety of the Governor's Circle honors Isaac Shelby, Kentucky's first and fifth governor. Shelby is believed to be responsible for Kentucky's adoption of the motto "United we stand, divided we fall", which also appears on the state seal. The landscaping around the circle is maintained by the Garden Club of Danville.
In June 2011, the Kentucky Department of Parks began discussions with Boyle County officials concerning the possibility of transferring control of Constitution Square to the county government, and the transfer was completed March 6, 2012. In the interim, the county received a $500,000 grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to renovate many of the site's properties, turning Constitution Square into an economic hub for the area. Improvements to the site will include making the first floors of all buildings compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, upgrading the electrical and phone systems in many of the buildings, and installing a wireless network to turn the entire site into a Wi-Fi hotspot. The grant required that an archeological study of the area be completed prior to beginning these improvements; commencement of the study was delayed due to the hosted at nearby Centre College in October 2012.
In February 2013, the Kentucky Historical Society erected a historical marker in the park to commemorate the African-Americans who enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. In May 1864, the group of 250 men – mostly slaves, but including some freedmen – marched from Danville to nearby Camp Nelson in Jessamine County, where Colonel Andrew Clark allowed them to enlist after some initial hesitation. Arriving with wounds inflicted upon them in route, this group was the first to enlist at this site, where 10,000 United States Colored Troops trained.
On September 10, 2013, the Boyle County Fiscal Court voted to endow $100,000 with the Louisville-based Wilderness Trace Community Foundation for maintenance of the park. The fiscal court receives 4% of the endowment annually to spend on park maintenance.
Buildings.
Constitution Square lies between Main Street and Walnut Street on the north and south, respectively, and between First Street and Second Street on the east and west, respectively. It contains one original building – the post office – and replicas of the original courthouse, jail, and meetinghouse, which were constructed as authentically as possible based on available records.
Post office.
The post office which lies at the north end of Constitution Square is an original structure. It was constructed sometime prior to 1792 and was the first U.S. post office built west of the Allegheny Mountains. Thomas Barbee, a member of a prominent early family in Danville, was commissioned as its first postmaster on August 20, 1792. The first mail was delivered to the post office on November 3, 1792. Originally located on Walnut Street, it was moved to its present location in 1950 by the Danville and Boyle County Historical Society and was dedicated to the Commonwealth of Kentucky on August 20, 1951.
Courthouse and jail.
The District of Kentucky and the Supreme Court of the District of Kentucky were both created in 1783. When the court moved to Danville in 1785, it ordered that two men determine the cost of constructing the buildings it needed to function, including a courthouse and jail. The report called for assessments to be made on the district's four counties for the construction of the buildings; Jefferson County was assessed £431, Nelson County £49, Fayette County £86, and Lincoln County £122. Isaac Hite was chosen to construct the buildings, which were finished in 1785. The jail was built in the center of the square, and the courthouse was situated between the jail and Walnut Street.
The district court held its first session in Hite's courthouse on March 14, 1785, and continued meeting there until its dissolution in 1792. Additionally, the Kentucky Council of War used the courthouse as its meeting place, and between 1785 and 1792, a series of ten constitutional conventions were held there. These conventions ultimately produced the first Kentucky Constitution, which was adopted in 1792. Soon after, the original courthouse was replaced with a two-story brick courthouse.
Little is known of the jail originally built by Isaac Hite. Court records show that it was to be built of hewn logs no less than thick and have at least two cells. The replica courthouse that now stands in Constitution Square was completed in 1942. It houses several personal items belonging to Kentucky's first governor, Isaac Shelby, including his hunting bag, powder flask, surveyor's instruments, and the chair in which he died. The courthouse also contains a portrait of Shelby and some Native American artifacts found in the vicinity.
Presbyterian meetinghouse.
Tradition holds that John Crow constructed a meetinghouse on the square in Danville prior to 1784, but the first meetinghouse described in surviving records was constructed in mid-1784 for use by Presbyterian minister David Rice. A replica of this meetinghouse was constructed in Constitution Square in 1942. The single-story log structure has a small bell tower on top. Rice's original meetinghouse was first used by the newly formed Concorde Presbyterian Congregation, the first Presbyterian congregation in what is now Kentucky. James Crawford and Tereh Templin, the first two Presbyterian ministers in Kentucky, were ordained at this meetinghouse on November 10, 1785.
Grayson's Tavern.
Benjamin Grayson constructed Grayson's Tavern in Danville sometime around 1785. The asymmetrical, ell-shaped building faces south onto Walnut Street with a front entrance on the south and a side entrance on the west, which opens onto Constitution Square. The Mary Akin Memorial Herb Garden, located behind Grayson's Tavern, features a variety of herbs that were commonly cultivated in the area during the late 18th and early 19th century, including chives, fennel, honeysuckle, lavender, rosemary, sage, and thyme. The garden is maintained by the Garden Club of Danville and named for one of its long-time members.
The Danville Political Club, a debating society which existed between 1786 and 1790, frequently held its meetings at the tavern. Many members of this society went on to become prominent political leaders at the state and national levels. Eleven of the Club's thirty members would participate in at least one of the ten constitutional conventions that helped separate Kentucky from Virginia. Among the members were Kentucky's first Secretary of State (and future U.S. Senator from Louisiana), James Brown; its third governor, Christopher Greenup; chief justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, George Muter; federal judges Harry Innes, William McClung, and Samuel McDowell; Congressmen Willis Green, Stephen Ormsby, Thomas Speed, David Walker, and Matthew Walton; U.S. Senator John Brown; and Thomas Todd, a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The existence of the club was lost to history until Speed's grandson, Thomas Speed II, discovered extensive minutes of its meetings that his grandfather, the club secretary, had taken and stored in a desk drawer. The younger Speed later published these minutes with his own commentary about the club, in which he opined that "Full and complete biographies of some of the members would present a history of Kentucky from the beginning of its settlement past the first quarter of the ensuing century." One of the few extant references to the Club outside Speed's meeting minutes is an entry in the journal of a U.S. Army paymaster named Major Beatty; while staying overnight at Grayson's Tavern, Beatty recorded that he and his companions were "very much disturbed by a Political Club which met in the next house where we slept and kept us awake till 12 or 1 o'clock."
In 1787, Benjamin Grayson sold the tavern to Robert Craddock, who subsequently converted it into his private residence. The replica that stands in Constitution Square houses the offices of the Convention and Tourism Bureau and The Great American Brass Band Festival. When Boyle County took over Constitution Square, the fiscal court agreed to waive the rent paid by the Convention and Tourism Bureau in exchange for its in-kind services managing the park jointly with the Boyle County Industrial Foundation. Danville Mayor Bernie Hunstad opposed the arrangement, fearing that park management would dilute both organizations' primary missions of bringing jobs to the area. In March 2013, Hunstad resigned his ex-officio membership on the Boyle County Industrial Foundation in protest.
Schoolhouse.
Little is known of the brick schoolhouse that faces west onto Constitution Square and stands between the Watts-Bell House and Grayson's Tavern. Local tradition holds that it dates to approximately the same time as the buildings near it and that it housed a private school. According to the Danville-Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau, it was constructed around 1820 and was the first brick schoolhouse west of the Allegheny Mountains. The single-story, two-room edifice is built upon a fieldstone foundation with brick laid in common bond and an off-center entrance with a transom above. While Constitution Square was a part of the state park system, the park manager lived in the schoolhouse. After the park's transfer to Boyle County, the schoolhouse was converted into a conference center with meeting space.
Fisher's Row Houses.
Jeremiah Fisher constructed two row houses, joined by a common wall and constructed of brick laid in a Flemish bond, near the city square in 1817. These houses lay on Second Street and face west onto Constitution Square. Fisher owned and rented these houses until 1850, but after he sold them they were used as tenements until at least the 1940s. The Wilderness Trace Art League and Boyle County Historical Society Museum occupied the row houses, before the park's purchase by the county. It now houses the Danville-Boyle County Chamber of Commerce, the Arts Commission of Danville-Boyle County, and the communications department of the Danville Boyle-County Economic Development Partnership.
Watts–Bell House.
The Watts–Bell House was originally constructed by William Watts for local merchant David Bell in 1816. It appears to have originally been constructed for some public use. Bell's son, future legislator and Lieutenant Governor Joshua Fry Bell, was reared in the house. It lies between Fisher's Row Houses and Grayson's Tavern on Second Street and also faces west onto Constitution Square. The two-story, asymmetrical house is laid in Flemish bond with queen closers. Beginning in 1839, the Danville Literary and Social Club met in the house. Before its dissolution about 2010, the Danville/Boyle County Historical Society Museum was headquartered here. It now contains executive offices and a conference room used by the Danville-Boyle County Economic Development Partnership.
Alban Goldsmith House.
The Alban Goldsmith House was constructed sometime prior to 1820. The story-and-a-half brick edifice is laid in common bond with a Flemish bond facade on the front. Three gabled windows were added to the facade many years after its construction. Interior chimneys with corbels on top adorn each end of the house. It faces west onto Second Street, away from Constitution Square, and opposite the Ephraim McDowell House across the street.
The house was owned by Dr. Alban Goldsmith, who studied medicine with Ephraim McDowell. When McDowell performed the first ovariotomy, Goldsmith acted as his assistant. Goldsmith would later help found the Louisville Medical Institute. In 1827, Goldsmith sold the house to Jefferson Polk, then a newspaper publisher, but later a doctor who practiced briefly in Danville before moving to Perryville, Kentucky.
The Alban Goldsmith House contains the Constitution Square Museum Store and the Heart of Danville, a local economic development organization.
Events.
In April 1987, Danville's local newspaper, the "Danville Advocate-Messenger", sponsored the first Rally on the Square, a political rally where candidates for statewide office can make speeches and meet area voters. Since then, the rally has been held every four years in April, in advance of the statewide primary elections in May. The first Rally on the Square featured a brass band from nearby Centre College, which inspired the city to hold the first Great American Brass Band Festival in 1990. The festival has been held annually in June ever since. Constitution Square is one of the locales used for outdoor performances during the festival.
The first Constitution Square Festival was held at Constitution Square State Historic Site in 1979. The event was held annually on the third weekend in September and featured historical reenactments, crafts, food, and music. In February 2009, the Kentucky Department of Parks announced that the festival would be suspended due to budget cuts prompted by the economic recession. Shortly after the announcement, three community organizations – the Heart of Danville, the Danville-Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Community Arts Center – volunteered to coordinate the festival without state funds. These groups gave the festival a more arts-centric focus and renamed it the Constitution Square Arts Festival. The event continued until 2011, but was suspended in 2012.
Constitution Square has hosted an annual charity run every year since 1978. After the opening of Danville's Community Arts Center in 2004, Ernst Crown-Weber, a local businessman, renamed the event Constitution Square 5K Run for the Arts and began organizing it as a way to raise money for the center. A local artist, Alison Craig, designs original awards to be presented to the winners.
In November 2011, the first Kentucky State Barbecue Festival was held in Constitution Square. The event, conceived just ten weeks prior by a local couple, proved very popular, and the following year the festival was moved to the September weekend previously reserved for the suspended Constitution Square Arts Festival. The Southeast Tourism Society named the festival one of its Top 20 Events in the Southeast for September 2013.


Usnea taylorii

Usnea taylorii is a fruticose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae.
Ecology.
Its predators include the land snail "Notodiscus hookeri".


Boronia fabianoides

Boronia fabianoides is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a compact shrub with many branches, simple, more or less cylindrical leaves and single white, pink or pale blue four-petalled flowers in the leaf axils.
Description.
"Boronia fabianoides" is a compact, multi-branched shrub that grows to a height of . The leaves are simple, more or less cylindrical long with a channel on the upper surface and often bunched. The flowers are white, pink or pale blue and are borne singly in leaf axils on a fleshy pedicel long. The four sepals are fleshy, narrow triangular to egg-shaped and long. The four petals are broadly elliptic, long and thickened- glandular along the mid-line. The eight stamens are hairy.
Taxonomy and naming.
This boronia was first formally described in 1904 by Ludwig Diels who gave it the name "Eriostemon fabianoides" and published the description in "Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie". In 1970 Paul G. Wilson changed the name to "Boronia fabianoides" and in 1998 he described two subspecies:
Distribution and habitat.
Subspecies "fabianoides" grows in eucalypt woodland between Norseman and the Esperance but subspecies "rosea" grows on hillslopes, around granite rocks and undulating plains between Lake King and the Fraser Range east of Norseman.
Conservation.
Both subspecies of "B. fabianoides" are classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.


Allium howellii

Allium howellii is a North American species of wild onion known by the common name Howell's onion. It is endemic to California.
Description.
"Allium howellii" is a tall onion plant, producing a stem which may exceed half a meter in height from a reddish-brown bulb one to two centimeters long. There is a single cylindrical leaf about as long as the stem. The inflorescence holds up to 100 dark-veined lavender to white flowers, each under a centimeter long.
Varieties.
Several varieties have been named:
Distribution and habitat.
Howell's onion grows in the granite and serpentine soils of several mountain ranges, hills, and valleys from San Joaquin County to San Bernardino County.


Carex triquetra


Palaquium walsurifolium

Palaquium walsurifolium is a tree in the family Sapotaceae. The specific epithet "walsurifolium" refers to similarity of the tree's leaves to those of the genus "Walsura".
Description.
"Palaquium walsurifolium" grows up to tall. The bark is rusty brown. Inflorescences bear up to five flowers. The fruits are subglobose, up to in diameter.
Distribution and habitat.
"Palaquium walsurifolium" is native to Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo. Its habitat is peat swamp, lowland mixed dipterocarp and alluvial forests.


Leptasterias pusilla

Leptasterias pusilla is a small, six-rayed sea star.
Description.
"A dainty little six-rayed seastar with a total arm spread usually under 2 cm."
Distribution.
"The genus "Leptasterias" originates in the Arctic," and within the United States, this species can be found in the middle intertidal zone of rocky shores of central California, including San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Monterey counties. "Leptasterias pusilla" is "...generally believed to be the most abundant species in the subgenus ["Hexasterias"]
along the North American Pacific coast from central California to southern Alaska."
Behavior.
"Leptasterias pusilla" may be quite numerous in the middle intertidal zone of rocky shores, typically moving around on the top of rocks at night after hiding under them during the day.
Diet.
Poikilotherms primarily feed on small gastropods, with only minimal metabolic rate fluctuations in response to changes in ambient temperature.
Reproduction.
The "Leptasterias pusilla" "...breeding habits are famous." The mother keeps the eggs and larvae in brood clusters around her mouth area until the larvae reach adult form. "Ovigerous females may be found in January and February, with the minute offspring seen in tide pools during February and March."


Hakea pritzelii

Hakea pritzelii is a shrub of the genus "Hakea" native to a few small areas in the Great Southern region of Western Australia.
Description.
An erect dense spreading shrub typically growing to a height of . It blooms from July to August and produces sweetly scented red-purple flowers with a light green style in clusters in leaf axils or along stems on old wood. The leaves are obovate, thick, rigid and stem clasping with a prominent sharp point. The pale green leaves vary from being entire to shallowly divided having 3, 5 or 9 small very sharp, prickly teeth. The fruit are long and wide with corky spines on the external surface.
Taxonomy and naming.
"Hakea pritzelii" was first formally described by Ludwig Diels in 1904. Named after the German botanist Ernst Georg Pritzel who travelled with Ludwig Diels collecting specimens of Western Australia flora.
Distribution and habitat.
"Hakea pritzelii" grows from Cranbrook and the Stirling Range National Park to Gnowangerup in heath and scrubland in white sand. Often found in low lying seasonally wet areas. A good habitat plant due to its dense prickly habit.
Conservation status.
Although "Hakea pritzilii" has a restricted range, it is considered "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.


Monographella nivalis var. neglecta

Monographella nivalis" var. "neglecta is a plant pathogen.


Conospermum eatoniae

Conospermum eatoniae, commonly known as blue lace, is a shrub endemic to Western Australia.
The spreading and intricately branched shrub typically grows to a height of . It blooms between August and October producing blue flowers. It has an upright habit and produces about 50 flowering stems per plant which produce blue flowers mostly between July and August. The plant has leafless stems and forms masses of china blue flowers in clusters.
The species was first formally described by the botanist Ernst Georg Pritzel in 1904 as part of the work by Pritzel and Ludwig Diels "Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae occidentalis. Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Pflanzen Westaustraliens, ihrer Verbreitung und ihrer Lebensverhaltnisse" as published in the "Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie". The only synonym is "Conospermum crassinervium".
It is found in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia where it grows in sandy soils.
The plant is suitable for the production of cut flowers and has a reasonable high yield. The flowers are highly sought after on Japanese markets.


Acerella muscorum

Acerella muscorum is a species of proturan in the family Acerentomidae. It is found in Europe and Northern Asia (excluding China).


Mycosphaerella louisianae

Mycosphaerella louisianae is a fungal plant pathogen.


SM Energy

SM Energy Company is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration. It is organized in Delaware and headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
The company was known as St. Mary Land & Exploration Company until 2010.
The company's assets are in the Eagle Ford Group (57% of reserves and 45% of 2020 production) and the Permian Basin (43% of reserves and 55% of 2020 production).
As of December 31, 2020, the company had of estimated proved reserves, of which 40% was petroleum, 16% was natural gas liquids, and 44% was natural gas.
History.
The company was founded in 1908 and incorporated in 1915.
In 1992, the company became a public company via an initial public offering.
In 2003, the company sold its assets in the Fort Chadbourne field for $17 million.
In 2008, the company sold assets to Abraxas Petroleum Corporation for $131.6 million.
In January 2010, the company sold assets in the Rocky Mountains for $267 million.
In May 2010, the company changed its name from St. Mary Land & Exploration Company to SM Energy.
In 2011, the company sold a partial interest in its holdings in the Eagle Ford Group to Mitsui & Co..
In 2013, the company sold its assets in the Anadarko Basin for $329 million.
In 2014, the company acquired 66,000 acres in the Bakken Formation for $330 million.
In June 2015, the company sold its assets in the Arkoma Basin of Oklahoma for $270 million.
In July 2015, the company sold its 76,300 net acres of Ark-La-Tex assets to Aethon Energy and RedBird Capital.
In August 2016, the company acquired Rock Oil Holdings LLC, which owned 24,783 net acres in Howard County, Texas, from Riverstone Holdings for $980 million.
On October 18, 2016, the company announced the purchase of assets in West Texas for $1.6 billion from an affiliate of EnCap Investments and the sale of assets in the Williston Basin for $0.8 billion to Oasis Petroleum.
In 2017, the company sold assets in the Eagle Ford Group for $800 million.
In 2018, the company sold its assets in the Williston Basin.