NOTES AND NEWS. 43 



Dr. B. E. Livingston, of the Desert Botanical Laboratory, 

 is spending the month of Februarv at tlie Missouri Botanical 

 Garden in carrvinff on some extensions of his investiffations of 

 the relations of xerophytic plants to soil and atmospheric mois- 

 ture. 



At the recent meeting of the A. A. A. S. in Xew York, a 

 Darwin memorial committee was formed for the purpose of suit- 

 ably commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the publication 

 of the Origin of Species. Prof. J. M. Coulter, of the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago, and Dr. D. T. MacDougal, of the Carnegie In- 

 stitution of Washington, are the botanical members of this com- 

 mittee, which comprises members from the geological, zoological, 

 anthropological, psychological and botanical sections of the asso- 

 ciation. 



Prof. F. E. Lloyd has brought his investigations of stomatal 

 action at the Desert Laboratory to a close and has now under- 

 taken an investigation of the floral and distributional features 

 of the vegetation of the region contiguous to the Laboratory and 

 inclusive of the international boundary zone. 



The botanical department of the University of Michigan is 

 issuing a series of bulletins under the general title of Field 

 Studies in Botany, which are sent free to the secondary schools 

 of the state. There have appeared thus far: Preparation for 

 Field Work, Eiver Studies and Bog Studies, by George P. 

 Burns ; Wood-lot Studies, and Field Work in Towns and Cities, 

 by Charles A. Davis, and Gullies and Kavines, by Francis L. 

 Stearns. The clearness of the maps and illustrations, with the 

 brief and explicit directions that are given, are likely to afford 

 welcome and much needed aid to teachers and students who, as 

 experience has shown, are eager to enter upon such work, but 

 need some one to guide them. 



AV. D. Matthews has recently published as a bulletin of the 

 American Museum of jSTatural History a series of maps, with 

 notes, indicating the hypothetical outlines of the continents in 

 tertiary times. The continuous land connection of Europe and 

 South America and the connection of the latter with Australia 



