NOTE AND COMIVIENT 



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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 

 botanical items. The magazine is issued as soon as possible 

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



Chestnut Bark Disease. — It is probably not new to most 

 of our readers that a very serious bark disease theatens the 

 chestnut trees of Eastern America. Since its discovery, eight 

 years ago, it has caused a loss of nearly twenty-five million 

 dollars. The disease is a fungus and is spread by spores so 

 small that singly they are invisible to the unaided eye, but 

 their power for harm is in no way dependent upon their size. 

 When the disease attacks a healthy tree it is only a matte* 

 of a few months before it succumbs. Great efforts are being 

 made to stop the spread of the disease, thus far without much 

 success. It was first discovered in the vicinity of New York 

 city and already has spread to half a dozen near-by states. It 

 is estimated that if the disease finally succeeds in exterminat- 

 ing all our chestnut trees, it will cause a loss of more than 

 three hundred million dollars. 



Boring Larvae. — The botanist rarely pays much attention 

 to the insects that feed upon his specimens, except perhaps to 

 execrate them when they injure the plants he wants for him- 

 self, but there are several problems connected with insect life 

 that will probably not be settled until some one with a knowl- 

 edge of botany takes hold. This is true in the case of the 

 boring larvae which become moths belonging to a group 

 rather widely distributed in the United States. Many of the 



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