Wanted. — Short notes of interest to the general botanist 

 are always in demand for this department. Our readers are 

 invited to make this the place of publication for their shorter 

 l)otanical items. The magazine is issued as soon as possible 

 after the 15th of February, May, August and November. 



Root Hair.s. — Ordinary plants absorb water from the 

 soil by means of their root-hairs — slender one-celled out- 

 growths from the region near the tip of the root. So nearly 

 universal is this that many people are under the impression 

 that all plants possess such structures. As a matter of fact 

 most water plants lack root hairs and even some land plants 

 such as some of the cone-bearers are without them. These lat- 

 ter are usually plants whose above-ground parts do not evapo- 

 rate moisture rapidly. Many plants which normally produce 

 root hairs, do not develop them if grown in water, but this is 

 not true of all land plants and even some species that normally 

 grow in water always bear root hairs. 



Flowering of \\'isteria. — There seems to be consider- 

 able difference in the flowering qualities of different Wisteria 

 plants. Some produce an abundance of blooms while others 

 treated equally well fail to respond with flowers. Mr. Elwyn 

 Waller reports an old German gardener as saying that plants 

 made from layers or suckers of this vine will not flower, but 

 that flowering plants must come from seed, and asks for an 

 opinion. It is. however, unlikely that any hard and fast rule 

 can be laid down. In general the rules that apply to other 

 plants w^ould be applicable here. Any plant growing in rich 

 soil is likely to be less fruitful than when growing in poorer 



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