THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. I 5 
their very existence indicates the victory they have won in their 
struggle for Hght. They have literally been forced up into the 
trees, and have attained their present development by seizing posi- 
tions of vantage with very little expenditure of materials. Com- 
mencing as humble occupants of the shady soil in the forest, it has 
been remarked that they have, during the course of ages, literalh- 
clambered up into the trees, striving after the light, and ever strug- 
gling against the precarious and fluctuating supplies of moistur- 
and humus, inventing new absorbing and fixing organs, and con- 
triving fresh devices for resisting threatened death from thirst or 
starvation, until at length their perilous career was crowned with 
success, and they formed aerial meadows and shrubberies. Their 
evolution is still reflected in the forest, where the simplest still 
lurk low down in moist shaded crevices on the tree trunks, and the 
more specialized ones are ranged successively upwards, until even 
before the tree tops are reached perfection is practically attained. 
—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 botanical items. 
Relation of Elevation to the Shape of Seeds.— Winged 
seeds are only useful when they start from a certain height. They 
occur in many trees— ash, lime, maple, sycamore, pine, fir, beech 
and hornbeam— but not on low plants. Hooked seeds, on the con- 
tra) ry, would be useless on high trees or even on shrubs above the 
height of a horse or cow. They occur on docks^ burrs and many 
ether herbs but are not found on a single tree or even on any 
shrub. Edible seeds especially characterize low trees and shrubs 
loved by birds— such as the cherry, holly, ivy, yew, etc., etc.— A^a- 
ture Notes. 
Sleep of the DAiSY.~It is freqently stated in regard to the 
common ox-eye daisy {chrysanthemum leucanthcnnim) that its 
ray flowers fold over the disk at night, and opening in the morn- 
ing earn for it the name of daisy (day's eye.) As a matter of fact, 
the ray flowers do nothing of the kind— at least in New York state 
