THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 75 
Shakespeare's time was that elves and fairies danced within the 
rings at nights, and seated themselves to rest between the dances 
on the dewy cupolas of the plants. In ''A Midsummer Night's 
Dream" Titania, in her quarrel with Oberon, describing to him the 
rage of the winds because the fairies dance no more, and the "con- 
tagious fogs" which they "in revenge have sucked up from the 
sea," says that as one result of the spiteful flood "the nine men's 
morris is fiU'd up with mud." This "morris" was the dance of 
nine men, the gnomes, who were supposed, after their Puck-like 
expeditions of maliciousness to dance with joy in the moonlit mea- 
dows, within the mushroom rings. Even in these enlightened 
days gardeners are sometimes found who believe that the growth 
of the mushroom is influenced by changes of the moon. — Indian 
Gardening. 
NOTE AND COMMENT 
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 botani- 
cal items. 
Protection of Wild Flowers in England. — Our cousins 
"on the other side" are beginning to agitate for a better protection 
of their rare flowers and ferns. Under the existing law, several 
depredators have received exemplary sentences but according to 
the report of the Selborne Society, a meeting of scientific societies 
at Canterbury in June, will discuss the advisability of additional 
protective legislation. 
Weed Laws. — The fact that many of our wild-flowers will nev- 
er require protection is emphasized by the laws that are constantly 
being made for their repression. In 1891 Minnesota enacted a 
law making it a misdemanor to encourage the growth of ox-eye 
daisy, Tennessee made it a misdemeanor to^ sell or give away 
Johnson grass, Texas forbid railroads to allow Johnson grass or 
Russian thistle to go to seed along their rights of way and Wis- 
consin, included wild barley among noxious weeds which are to be 
destroyed. 
