NOTE AND COMMENT 



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Wanted. — Short notes of interest to the general bot- 

 anist are always in demand for this department. Our readers 

 are invited to make this the place of publication for their 

 botanical items. It should be noted that the magazine is is- 

 sued as soon as possible after the fifteenth of each month. 



Birds as Botaxists. — Apropos of the interesting note on 

 Birds as Botanists in your February issue. I noticed last 

 spring in a cactus clump on the Mojave Desert a bird's nest 

 prettily intensoven with the blossoms and stems of a small yel- 

 low flowered annual of the desert. Bacria gracilis. I do not 

 know the bird that used the nest, but it was a small sparrow- 

 like species — certainly not a bird of prey. The cactus, by the 

 way. is a favorite building site for the desert birds, the sharp 

 spines making an excellent defense for them against snakes 

 and egg-eating animals. — C. F. Saunders, Pasadena, Cal. 



Xerophyllum Asphodeloides. — That is a formidable 

 name, yet the only common one of which we haii e any knowl- 

 edge is not much better, being '"turkey's beard." More 

 than all the common name has no signiticance nor appropriate- 

 ness whatever. The small flowers are borne in a dense raceme 

 at the top of a stalk and are pure white, the only tinge of color 

 about them being a hint of yellow given by the small but bright 

 yellow anthers. Ever}- year when this plant comes into bloom. 

 we feel that it ought to be brought into more prominent no- 

 tice. It grows in low moist land in shady places. It can be cul- 

 tivated by imitating nature as nearly as possible. The plant 

 mav be easilv recosfnized. its leaves are Ions: and narrow, all 

 starting from the ground, and look ver}- much like those of the 

 old Northern com lily. {Hemcrocallis fitlz'a). The flower 



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