NOTE AND COMMENT 



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. 



The Food of Ants. — Notwithstanding Solomon's tribute 

 to the industriousness of the ant, the life of such insects is 

 doubtless not without its pleasures. The nectar of plants 

 affords them a food to their liking, and the pollen and spores 

 of the lower plants must be to them much as . apples and 

 oranges are to us. A writer in the Bryologist notes that they 

 are very fond of certain moss spores and will gnaw a hole in 

 the capsule in order to obtain them. JVebcra sessilis is report- 

 ed to have been attacked in this wav. 



ml 



Direction of Growth in Roots. — When a seed begins 

 to sprout, the young root is first to come out of the seed-coats 

 and this immediately starts downward in response to gravity. 

 The direction taken by the first root is of great service to the 

 plant for it thus soon encounters the much needed moisture. 

 The secondary roots, however, are less influenced by gravity 

 and the fine rootlets not at all. Gravity is thus seen to be not 

 so much an impelling force as it is a force by means of which 

 the roots direct their course. Other instances are not wanting 

 in which roots seem able to choose between forces. Thus in 

 the ceriman {Monstera deliciosa) which climbs on tropical 

 trees, some of the roots grow at right angles to the stem and 

 hold it in position while others grow straight downward to 

 secure food materials. In our common poison ivy, which pro- 



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