286 Notes and Comments. 



the editor sees the funny side of things as a result of her visit 

 to Japan. She certainly had the opportunity, if the stories in 

 her charming ' Journal from Japan ' are to be believed — and 

 we see no reason to doubt them. Amongst the many pieces of 

 botanical information to be found in the ' Sportophyte,' we 

 learn that the morals of the Ouad[ ! Jrangle at Manchester 

 University have recently been improved, because the hotbed 

 of Weiss has been removed to another place since the additions 

 to the botanical department have been completed. 



WATER AND PLANTS. 



Elsewhere, after a little ' scene ' between Phyllis and Adonis, 

 we learn that ' Weisdom leads Phyllis triumphantly to the 

 Laboratorium to a special Service of Praise and Dance.' The 

 magazine has strong teetotal tendencies, as we learn that ' from 

 a plant's point of view, if one may use such a phrase, water is its 

 best and almost only friend.' Moderate drinkers will agree that 

 ' water is the food of a green plant ' ; ' In the ground water is 

 needed,' and after that, ice, for some of us. We can only hope 

 that the ' Flare of Northern Lights ' assisting the ' Palaeophyt- 

 ologist of Manchester University ' will not feel ' put out ' if 

 the sale of their first sporting fight does not come up to their 

 expectations. We can wish the journal the fate of the rabbit 

 and cabbage that may be put in a hermetically sealed tube. 

 This we learn would be, that as plants breathe in carbon 

 dioxide and breathe out oxygen, and animals breathe in oxygen 

 and breathe out carbon dioxide, the two would live jar ever.' 

 But what if the rabbit gets hungry ? You never thought of 

 that! Miss Palaeophytologistsportophyte.* 



A FROG WHO WOULD A-WOOING GO. 



A letter addressed to this journal at ' Fleet Street, City, or 

 elsewhere,' has safely reached us, we are glad to say. It is from 

 an address in Catford (Kent), and invites us to pay a visit 

 to the writer's garden, trusting that it will be an advantage to us 

 as well as to himself, as he is out of employment. It seems that 

 there is a frog ' in young,' nesting in a gooseberry bush. Ap- 

 parently it has not built a nest for itself, but has occupied the 

 disused nest of a robin. A well-known clergym.an in Hull 

 recently showed us an old nest in a bush in his garden, into 

 which a toad regularly climbed and slept, though we must 

 admit it never occurred to us that it was either ' in young ' 



* Pronounced Sfopes. 



