222 
NATURE NOTES 
well, I think, if some persons of weight and influence would 
take the matter in hand at once, with a view to the adoption 
of road-side pipes or some other method of laying the wires, in 
lieu of the present disfiguring posts. What with railways, the 
rapid growth of towns, the introduction of corrugated iron into 
rural scenes, and the use of telegraph- and telephone-poles, the 
scenery of Britain has almost become a thing of the past.” 
The Destruction of Leaves. — The following answer to 
Mr. Pickering’s letter appeared in The Standard for October 29 : — 
“ Sir, — Every country farmer burns the rubbish he rakes off 
his fields after the crops are gathered. Every gardener, both 
in town and country, burns all he can, and they all do it as the 
quickest and most effectual way of killing grubs, seeds, eggs, 
and spores. The Board of Agriculture recommends the burning 
of rubbish as ’ a means of preventing the spread of fungoid 
diseases of plants ; while the residual ashes can readily be 
spread over the land and dug in again to nourish succeeding 
growths. Every botanist knows that the plant gets its mineral 
constituents from the soil, and its carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen 
from the air and from water. The plant does get most of its 
nitrogen from the soil, but there is never any lack of that in 
the surface soil of London parks and squares. The smoke of 
the burning mass is surely less objectionable than the smell of 
a heap of decaying leaves would be, even if there were room 
for such a heap in the London parks and squares. I have 
always understood that any inferior vitality that the leaves of 
town trees may show is due to the poisonous effects of smoke 
and the choking of their stomata by soot, rather than to any 
lack of nutrient matter m the soil. In fact, it was found out 
in Manchester some years ago that the minute quantities of 
hydrochloric acid gas and sulphurous anhydride which are 
always present in the atmosphere of towns are absolutely 
fatal to vegetable life. — W. Spencer Turner, Willingham, 
Cambs., October 25.” 
We doubt if insect and fungoid diseases demand the burning 
of leaves in London. It is not a question of dead wood, or 
“ rubbish.” Residual ashes will not restore nitrogen, and the 
main question is whether some of our park trees are not 
suffering from a deficiency of this essential element. 
Mosses a Study for Winter. — Mosses are in perfection 
at this season of the year, when flowering plants are drooping 
or dead. They can be collected and studied best in the cold 
season when they produce their fruit, and furnish an object for 
walks and exercise at a season when other pursuits have to be 
laid aside. How is it that so few people take up this interesting 
study ? A new Society has just been formed to help beginners 
in Bryology, an offshoot of the “ Moss Exchange Club,” called 
the “ Beginners’ Section.” Its object is to afford needful help 
