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 publication for their 
botanical notes. It should be noted that the magazine is 
issued as soon as possible after the fifteenth of each month. 
Useful Mosquitoes. — There is probably very Httle to 
be said in favor of the pestiferous mosquito, but it may pos- 
sibly be set down to its credit that it occasionally transports 
the poliina of the green orchis {Habenaria hyperborea) 
from flower to flower. 
Fertilization in the Gingko.— The gingko, or Chi- 
nese maiden hair tree {Gingko btloba), which is now often 
planted for shade in this country, is a remarkable tree in 
many ways. Although so closely related to the pines as to 
often be placed in the same order, the leaves are flat and ex- 
panded, instead of needle-shaped, and veined exactly like 
those of the maiden-hair fern. The fruits are not cones, but 
look like yellow plums, and are manifestly nearer the struc- 
ture of the fruits of the yew, juniper and similar ''conifers." 
In ordinary- plants after pollination, the pollen tube grows 
down through the pistil until its contents fuse with those 
of the embaryo-sac before a seed can result. In the gingko, 
on the contran,-, the fruit may mature and finally drop from 
the tree before this fusing of pollen tube and embryo-sac 
contents has been accomplished. 
The Value of Common Objects.— Why should men 
be sending off to mid-Africa for plants and shrubs to dec- 
orate their homes, wasting their time and money in trying 
