NOTES AND NEWS. 127 



A fund is being raised for a monument in memory of Baron Sir 

 Ferdinand von Mueller, the distinguished Australian botanist, who 

 died October loth, 1S96. It is to be erected over his grave at South 

 Yarra, Victoria. 



There is a Fan Palm found fossil near the mouth of the Yellow- 

 stone river, in Montana, that had leaves from 8 to 10 feet in diameter. 

 It is known as Sabal Canipbcllii and is probably the largest fossil palm 

 yet found. 



Dr. J. C. Arthur has an interesting article in the December num- 

 ber of the Annals of Botany on the movements of protoplasm in the 

 hyphai of many of our common moulds, a phenomenon not fully' 

 recognized before. He finds the conditions under which these move- 

 ments take place to be somewhat complicated, but when everything is 

 favorable the protoplasm " has a surging precipitate flow, very striking 

 to any observer, even to one accustomed to the diversity of microscopic 

 life, and reminds one of the flow of blood in the capillaries of a frog's 

 web." 



While near Lake Trafford, in southern Florida, during January 

 and February of this year, I noticed that a large number of Cypress 

 trees ( Taxodiuui distichnm) had not yet shed their leaves. Per- 

 haps the larger number had dropped their leaves, yet growing in the 

 same situations and similar in size and appearance, were those which 

 retained the foliage as bright and green as in spring. Can any one 

 suggest a probable cause for this ? — Robert Ridgivay, Smithsonian 

 Institution, Washington, D. C. 



There is almost no more interesting feature in the study of the 

 lower races of mankind than their contact with the natural surround- 

 ings. Development and elaboration of the arts and alike of the mind 

 are involved in the utilization of the plants, animals and minerals of the 

 environment. Ethnobotany is a word which marks the entrance of 

 botany into the field of ethnological researches; it may be defined as 

 the study of plants in their relations to human culture. The study has 

 already furnished clues or confirmation of many of the problems which 

 confront the ethnologist. Collectors of plants can do much to advance 

 ethnobotany by securing also the common names and uses of plants, 

 not alone from Indians, but from the folk. Mr. F. V. Coville's " Direc- 

 tions for collecting specimens and information illustrating the Aborig- 

 inal uses of plants," published by the U. S. National Museum, is an 

 admirable guide, which should be in the hands of everyone interested 

 in forwarding the science of ethnobotany. — Walter Hough, U. S. 

 National Museum, Washington, D. C. 





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