MINOR NOTES l6l 



it. Ag indicated by its heading, the new publication is de- 

 signed to facilitate exchanges of preserved plants, aid in the 

 distribution of collections and in development of herbaria. 

 'I'he publisher wishes to receive botanical papers of all kinds. 



The MacMillan Company of New York hav^e recently 

 issued a small volume on "Soils and Fertilizers'' by Professor 

 Harry Snyder of the University of Minnesota, which in ad- 

 dition to a general discussion of the physical properties, for- 

 mation and composition of soils etc., includes a section 

 devoted to experimentation and laboratory practice. 



The third edition of WiUis' Manual and Dictionary of 

 the Flowering Plants and Ferns has recently come from the 

 Cambridge University Press! Editions one and two were in 

 two volumes, which have been combined in the present edi- 

 tion. A large amount of new material has been included and 

 sections on methods and outfits for collecting and Held work 

 have been added. The author has had the co-operation of 

 many of the leading botanists in England in the revision and 

 preparation of the book. 



Dr. C. S. Gager, Director of the Laboratories of the 

 New York Botanical Garden, resigns that position Septem- 

 ber ist to accept his election as Professor of Botany in the 

 University of Missouri. Professor Gager is now reading 

 final proofs of a volume dealing with his extensive experi- 

 ments upon the influence of radium upon plants. 



Dr. A. R. Schouten has recently presented a thesis to the 

 University of Amsterdam in which he sets forth the results 

 of an examination of the mutability and variability of the 

 evening primroses. Five new mutants of Lamarck's evening 

 primrose were obtained and many interesting observations 

 made on those already known, including Oeiiot/iera gigds, 

 which has been seen to appear but rarely. Dr. Schouten 

 confirms Shull's conclusions that phylogenetically younger 

 or more recent characters are more variable than older ones, 



