38 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [ 2:i - JA nuaky, 1906 



of buds, a teacher of botany sends the following references to literature, some 

 of which is probably available in every library : 



Hampton (Va.) N. S. Leaflet (for teachers) No. 8, " Winter buds," 

 10 cents; Rhode Island Nature Guard (Kingston, R. I.) Leaflet 29, 

 " Tree Buds ;" Bergen's " Foundations of Botany " (Ginn &Co.), Chap. 

 8; Bailey's "Lessons with Plants" (Macmillan), Pp. 1-77; Cornell 

 University Home Nature-Study Course, No. 19, January, 1902 ; Cornell 

 Teachers' Leaflets, No. 3, April, '98 ; Huntington's "Studies of Trees in 

 Winter" (Knight & Millet); Lubbock's " Buds and Stipules" (London: 

 Kegan Paul); Andrews' "Botany all the Year Round" (Am. Book Co.) 

 Chap. 7. 



NATURE NOTES 



Mistletoe. This interesting parasitic plant is the subject of a paper by 

 Mary M. Brackett in the November Plant World. The one true mistletoe 

 of the holiday season is Viscum album and the finest specimens come from 

 the old apple trees of England. The American mistletoe, which grows on 

 deciduous trees from New Jersey to North Carolina and westward to the 

 Mississippi, is also found in the markets, but is not so handsome as the 

 imported species. There are about 500 species ot the mistletoe family 

 widely distributed throughout the world, growing in divers climates from sea- 

 level to 6000 fee", and on many kinds of trees. 



Galls and Gall-Makers. No. 43 (October, 1905) of The Nature 

 Guard, Kingston, R. I., is a lesson on common galls. An interesting sug- 

 gestion is that specimens be collected and placed in covered jars until the 

 gall-flies appear in the spring. 



The Hair-Eel. Professor Prince, Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries, 

 writes an interesting account of the horse-hair eel in the Ottawa Naturalist. 

 The popular story that horse-hairs soaked in water will turn to eels rests upon 

 the fact that the hair-eel (Gordius aquaticus) certainly resembles a horse-hair 

 and that they have sometimes suddenly appeared in pools to which horses 

 have had access. Such unexpected appearance is explained by the discovery 

 that certain flying water-beetles are the hosts in which the undeveloped hair- 

 eels are internal parasites and that they may be dried for months, some 

 authors say years, and still regain their former activity when placed in water. 

 They are widely distributed over the world. The popular opinion is that 

 the bite is dangerous, but the mouth is too small to make this possible. 



Spontaneous Origin of Forest Fires. In a recent (Dec. 15) issue 



