TQE PLANT WORLD. 79 



than $500 per acre; and with good care, the crop will be large and 

 sure from year to year for a century. — Forest Leaves. 



In the March number of The Plant World mention is made of 

 TiareUa cordifoUa. I have in my herbarium specimens collected in 

 Gaylord, Mich., similfir to those described by Mr. C. K. Dodge, viz: 

 with runners and which are also taking root, 



I should like to reiterate all that Professor Nelson says in the 

 same number about botany and especially botanists. Where I am 

 located — in sight of the National Capitol — I am a constant curiosity to 

 people when they see me with "that yere tin can." I heartily agree 

 with his entire article. 



May I ask through The Plant World something about the 

 habitat of Priimda Mistassinica Michx.? In 1895 I found it clinging 

 to perpendicular cliffs of limestone at Grand Ledge, Michigan. After- 

 ward in Otsigo County, while rambling about the country, my atten- 

 tion was called by some Polish people to a "pretty posy". I found it 

 to be this Primula, but growing in a veritable quagmire. It was 

 darker color, and a patch of four or five square yards was certainly 

 handsome. — Guy L. Stewart, College Park, Maryland. 



The March number of the Annals of Botany contains an exceed- 

 ingly valuable paper on the Maidenhair Tree {^Ginkgo hiloha), by A. 

 C. Seward and Miss J. Gowan. This tree is sometimes spoken of as 

 unknown in a wild state, but according to the authors, it is found in 

 several places in China and Japan under conditions that would seem to 

 preclude the possibility of its being cultivated. It occasionally reaches 

 the height of 100 feet, and a circumference of 28 feet, but usually it is 

 much smaller. The authors first present a brief historical sketch of 

 its discovery and subsequent scientific history. Then follows a careful 

 description of the anatomy, and the structure and development of the 

 flowers and fruit. They then give a short account of the probable an- 

 cestors as shown by fossil retnains. They conclude that it is to be 

 regarded as an isolated type that should be placed in a se})arate divi- 

 sion of the Gymnosperms — the Ginkgoaceae — and no longer included 

 in the Conifene. "In many res})ects Ginkgo shows a marked aftinity 

 with the cycads; like the extinct cycadofilices, Ginkgo possesses both 

 Fiiieincan and cvcadean characters, but while exhibitino; traces of the 

 union of cycads and Ferns, it represents in all probability a very ancient 

 type which may have been merged into the cordaitales in the Paleozoic 



era" 



