18 THE PI.ANT WORLD 



tendance, but by the fact that the next meeting is set for the closing week 

 of this year. The next meeting will be at St. Louis. There were four 

 distinct botanical organizations holding meetings at the same time, and as a 

 result it was impossible for one to follow papers of interest being presented 

 simultaneously. As the membership in the actual organizations is largely 

 made up of the same individuals it would seem better for all interests to de- 

 vise in future a means of consolidation . If the papers scheduled for pre- 

 sentation before all the bodies were arranged by subjects, it would be pos- 

 sible to avoid two papers on the same topic being read at the same moment. 

 This plan was followed by the Geological section of the Association and 

 the Geological Society of America, and the result was highly satisfactory. 

 If it is worth while for the various botanical organizations to meet at all 

 in conjunction with the American Association, why not go a step further 

 and secure a more perfect coordination ? 



The War Department has recently issued a report of the Forestry 

 Bureau of the Philippines, by Capt. G. P. Ahern, in charge, in which is 

 given lists of the different kinds of timber, woods used for fire-wood, dye- 

 wood, rubber, etc. The author gives a brief description of the forests of 

 the Philippines and concludes that if the proper safeguards are adopted 

 they will prove not only a source of great revenue, but may be maintained 

 without serious depreciation. 



As THE result of a test made among the school children of Chicago it 

 is reported that fully 100,000 children in that city are totally ignorant of 

 the names of the commonest flowers, mixing lilies, roses, hyacinths and 

 everything into a hopeless jtimble. 



It seems extraordinary that such a state of things can be ; 3'et parallel 

 cases have been found elsewhere and it must not be thought that the 

 schools of Chicago are peculiar in this respect. It was shown but a short 

 time ago that the average school child was totally ignorant of the mean- 

 ing of the most ordinary' words, which, though in daily use, were repeated 

 parrot-like. 



A great scare has gone through the press because these children of the 

 Chicago schools were unable to tell the difference between a rose and a 

 violet, and did not know the names of the dandelion and of the buttercup. 

 Boston, for instance, raises an outcry against the public school system of 

 the second largest city in the United States, but after all it shows nothing 

 and leads to nothing. If the children are not taught and properly taught 

 they can not be expected to know, and the fact is that the lashings should 

 be given, if at all, to the teachers rather than to the children. — Americaii 

 Gardening . 



