THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 17 



root systems of most of these plants are extensive. In 

 some cases the roots weighed nearlj- twenty times as 

 much as the trunk and branches and were evidently used 

 for storing water. 



Telegraph Poles in Fruit.— Over 1,000 miles of tel- 

 egraph poles in full fruit may be seen in Uganda. The 

 wires are strung from a species of fig tree which has ex- 

 traordinary powers of vitality even when detached from 

 its own roots.— Gardening World. 



Perfume of Flowers. — Recent investigations have 

 shown that the perfume of flowers is often increased by 

 growing under colored glass, that some plants are fragrant 

 only at night and others only in hot sunshine, that the 

 seasons affect odors, and that temperate climates are 

 more favorable than tropical ones. — Gardening World. 



Not Any For Us.— The Gardening World, comment- 

 ing upon a recent article regarding poison iv3^ in The 

 American Botanist says, " It is astonishing to what ex- 

 tent this shrub is grown in America, for it grows rankh' 

 upon walls and fences bordering the country roads for 

 miles. The article does not state whether these have been 

 planted or have grown there naturally but we should im- 

 agine they have been planted for covering the walls and 

 fences." To this we hasten to reply that the poison ivy, 

 like the crow and house sparrow, thrives in America in 

 spite of the eftbrts of farmers to exterminate it. Our walls 

 in country districts are made of rough stone loosely put 

 together, and the ivy runs riot over them as well as 

 spreading into the grass on their borders. It is one of the 

 commonest plants of eastern America, being fotmd from 

 Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The foliage is brilliant in 

 autumn, and the fact that the plant is not poisonous to 

 most people, or at least that few people are annually 

 poisoned by it, probably accounts for the lack of more de- 

 termined efforts toward eradicating it. 



