1^ Note and Comment. ^ 
Wanted.— Short notes of interest to the general botan- 
ist are always in demand for this department. Our read- 
ers are invited to make this the place of pnbhcation for their 
botanical notes. It should be noted that the magazine is 
issued as soon as possible after the Hfteenth of each month. 
Stray-berry.— According to Gardening World, the 
strawberry was originally called stray-berry, from the habit 
of its runners in straying from the parent plant. 
x\ges of Fungi.— The mushroom is often referred to 
as tjT)ical of rapid growth and equally rapid decay, but 
some of the woody fungi are among the most enduring of 
plants. According- to Atkinson, some of the slielf-fungi 
(Polyporaceae) may live to be eighty years old. 
The French Mulberry.— In late autumn certain 
parts of Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee are bright with the 
ma-enta colored berries of the French mulberrv' ( Callicarpa 
Amcricmm) that do as much for the landscape 's do the 
bernes of the winter berry (Prhios vcrticUlata) farther 
north. The mulberry is fond of old fields and waste places 
and would seem a very desirable species for decorative plant- 
ing in regiuns uhere it will grow. 
^Ienthol.— Menthol. 
t>metim.es known as peppermint 
camphor, is a solid constituent of peppermint oil. It is said 
to be obtained by cooling peppermint oil to a verv low tem- 
perature. Although we commonly think of this oil as be- 
ing derived from Mentha piperita, there are several si^ecies 
ot mint from wliich an oil with properties resembling it mav 
be obtained. It is said that Japanese menthol differs slightly 
from the American product in odor, because that produced 
m japan is made from a different species of mint. 
