iS95. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 89 



The Name of the Southern or Splenic Cattle-Fever Para- 

 site. — The generic name given by Drs. Smith and Kilborne, having 

 been previously used in Zoology, must be dropped. I propose the 

 name Piroplasma to replace it. 



PiROPLASMA BIGEMINUM (S. & K.) 



Syn. Pyrosoma bigeminum Smith and Kilborne, Repts. Bn, An. 

 Ind. 'gi-'ga (1893), P- 212, pits. IV-IX. — Wm. Hampton Patton, 

 Hartford, Conn. 



Mr. Wm. Hampton Patton is another of those that love to reap where 

 they have not sown. The next time that a desire for fame leads him 

 to irritate zoologists by the publication of a new name in this hugger- 

 mugger fashion, we trust he will give the evidence on which the name 

 due to the original author is stated to be pre-occupied, and that he will 

 see more carefully to his own names. Piroplasma is either a solecism 

 or a mongrel, but as its etymology is not given, we are unable to decide 

 which. 



Botany and the American Government. 



Under the title of " The Botanical Work of the Government," 

 Mr. J. M. Coulter gives in the Botanical Gazette for June, a brief 

 sketch of the work of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There 

 are four divisions. That of Botany, under Mr. F. V. Coville and seven 

 assistants, includes, besides more purely scientific work, the investi- 

 gations of weeds, of poisonous and medicinal plants, and the testing of 

 seeds ; 38,600 dols. was appropriated for its use in the past year. 

 The division of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology, with Mr. B. T. 

 Galloway as chief, finds work for as many as ten assistants. Potato 

 disease, diseases of fruits and cereals, and the anatomy of galls, are 

 among the subjects to which attention is now being given. The 

 appropriation for the year ending June 30, 1895, was 26,100 dols. 

 The division of Agrostology comes into existence with the first of 

 Jul}', as separate from the division of Botany. It deals with forage 

 plants and grasses, its function being to instruct and familiarise the 

 people with the habits and uses of these plants, to investigate their 

 natural history and adaptability to different soils and climates, to 

 introduce promising native and foreign kinds into cultivation, and to 

 identify all grasses and forage plants which may be sent in for the 

 purpose. Professor Lamson Scribner, its chief, is preparing a hand- 

 book of the United States grasses. He has two assistants, and the 

 appropriation amounts to 15,000 dols. The Forestry division is under 

 Mr. B. E. Fernow, with four assistants. Its main work during the 

 past three years has been the study of the character and value of the 

 woods of " merchantable species." Mr. Fernow has, however, a much 

 more difficult task in hand, namely, the arousing and organising 

 public sentiment in favour of a rational forest policy. Mr. Coulter's 

 article brings home the fact that in some things our American cousins 

 have got a long way ahead of us. 



