NOTE AND COMMENT 



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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 10th of February, May, August and November. 



Fairy Rings. — In addition to the plants which Dr. Glea- 

 son notes as forming fairy rings we may cite several species of 

 the fern-worts that do so. Accounts of some of these have ap- 

 peared in the Fern Bulletin. In volume 7 the rings of Lycopo- 

 dium inundatum are described, in volume 9 those of Osmunda, 

 and in volume 15 those of Lycopodium sabinaefolium. We 

 shall be glad to publish further notes on this subject if our 

 readers will send them in. 



Trimorphic Flowers. — Even the novice in botany is fa- 

 miliar with the fact that some flowers are dimorphic, that is 

 some plants of a certain species produce flowers with long 

 styles and short stamens while others are just the reverse with 

 short styles and long stamens. Both sorts of flowers seem 

 equally productive of seeds, but the two usually require an ex- 

 change of pollen to be completely fertile. Examples of sucli 

 flowers will come to mind in the common bluet {Houstonia 

 coerulea) moss pink {Phlox sithulata) golden bell (Forsyfhia 

 suspensa) English cowslip (Primula veris) and many others; 

 in fact, dimorphic flowers are found in more than seventy-five 

 genera of flowering plants, though any single genus may only 

 contain one or t\v(^ examples. So far as known all occur 

 among the dicotyledons and nearly half among the Rubiaceae. 



