19 
NOTES, NEWS AND COMMENT. 
Professor E. O. Wooton, of the Agricultural College of New 
Mexico, spent several days at the Garden during December 
consulting the acai m. Professor Wooton is spending his 
sabbatical year at the United States National Museum to com- 
plete a work on the flora of New Mexico. 
In conservatory range No. 1, house No. 11, is the collection 
of bananas and related plants. Two plants of the edible species, 
Musa sapientum, are now making fruit; the so-called “hand”’ 
bananas is developed from the cluster of flowers under am of 
the large colored bracts clothing the axis of the young banana 
bunch; bananas are natives of the old world tropics; many 
edible kinds are extensively cultivated throughout tropical 
and warm-temperate regions. In the same house i is Strelitzia 
Nicolai, native of southern Africa, now in bloom, its flowers 
borne near the top of the tall stem; also Ravenala madagascari- 
ensis, native of Madagascar, the special interest of which lies 
in its large leaves with broad sheathing bases, where water ac- 
cumulates; when these are cut the water runs out in considerable 
quantity, hence its name of ‘‘travelers’ tree’; its stems are used 
for making houses, floors and for other economic purposes. 
Volume 3, part 1, of “North American Flora,’’ comprising 
88 pages of text, appeared December 29, 1910. It contains 
the order Hypocreales, with the families Nectriaceae and Hypo- 
creaceae, by Fred J. Seaver; and the Fimetariales, with the Chae- 
tomi elen P. 
dariaceae), by David Griffiths and Fred J. 
the species here treated, especially those belonging to the genus 
Nectria, are injurious to cultivated plants, while many of the 
species of Cordyceps live upon, and aid in destroying injurious 
insects. 
Many of the orchids in house No. 15, conservatory range 
o. I, are now in flower. Among these are the Dendrobiums, 
from the old world, many of them rich in color, others pure white. 
A Philippine orchid, Platyclinis glumacea, is at its prime, a mass 
