. . EDITORIAL . . . 



The Fo7-estcr, the official organ of the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation, is a most excellent journal and is doing splendid work in edu- 

 cating the people to an appreciation of what forestry is and could do 

 toward the saving of our forests. The July number contains the fol- 

 lowing suggestive articles: "Natural Reforestation in the South- 

 west," by Prof. J. W. Tourney; " The Redwood Forest of California," 

 by Henry Gonnett; "The Restoration of Mountain Covering," by T. 

 P. Lukens; "The Profession of Forestry," by Gifford Pinchot, and 

 numerous shorter papers and notes. It is illustrated throughout by 

 fine half-tone engravings. 



* * 



Early in the year the Division of Forestry in the Department of 

 Agriculture offered to undertake practical field instruction in forestry 

 of a limited number of properly ciualified young men, during the 

 present season. This offer met with an immediate response fro a a 

 large number of young men, many of them college undergraduates, 

 the excess of applications necessitating careful selection. Three par- 

 ties numbering from five to fifteen students each are now in the field. 

 The first, under Mr. Pinchot, forester of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, is working in the State of Washington ; the second, under Mr. 

 Henry S. Graves, is in the Adirondacks, and the third, under Prof. 

 W. W. Ashe, is in North Carolina. 



NOTES f\m NEWS. . 



In regard to the "peculiar freak " in Skunk Cabbage, described 

 by Mr. Clute in the June Plant World, it may be as well to call at- 

 tention to the fact that the same thing was described and figured in 

 the July number of the American Naturalist for 1882, by Charles S. 

 Plumb, now Professor Plumb, of Lafayette, Indiana. — Charles E. 

 Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska, June p, i8gg. 



The June number of the Botanical Gazette contains the following 

 articles: A morphological study of PodopJiyllinn peltatnni^hy 'Y:\\q.o. 

 Holm; the concluding part of John Donnell Smith's papers on un- 

 described plants from Guatemala and other Central American re- 

 publics; new species of Western plants, by T. S. Brandegee; the 

 effects of ether upon the germination of seeds and spores, by C. O. 

 Townsend, and many shorter notes. 



