90 THE PLAISTT WORLD. 



who flock here from all comers of the earth. A very large her- 

 barium is housed in a special building and placed in immediate 

 care of a staff of systematic botanists, a special forest herbarium 

 occupies another building, a botanical library with some 4:0,000 

 volumes, and a museum for economic plant products comprise 

 one series of well erected modern structures. 



The main group of laboratories consists of one building for 

 agricidtural and chemical investigations, another for zoological 

 work, including a museum ; there are plant physiological, path- 

 ological, bacteriological and geological laboratories. One is 

 devoted to pharmacology, others to tea, coffee, rice, rubber and 

 cinchona investigations. One large building is especially de- 

 voted to laboratories for visiting botanists. It is probably well 

 known that certain European countries regularly send a botanist 

 to study at Buitenzorg, while students from other countries ar- 

 rive at irregTilar intervals. For everyone there is room, and all 

 necessary supplies and facilities are freely and liberally placed 

 at the visitor's disposal. There is certainly no institution in 

 the world which can offer better opportunities to the student of 

 tropical plant life in its various forms. 



Buitenzorg botanical garden is to the botanist what the Zo- 

 ological Station at Naples is to the zoologist. 



The town has an excellent mountain climate, the elevation 

 being 800 feet, and a person unused to tropical conditions finds 

 that he can here work in safety from fevers, as well as accom- 

 plish work without the constant enervating effect produced by 

 the Tropics generally. 



Professor J. H. Schaffner, of tlie University of Ohio, has 

 recentlv described a form of Verbena stricta occurring: in Clav 

 county, Kansas, which he designates as a mutant of the species. 

 In commenting upon his discovery, he says : ''Some have claimed 

 that mutations have been mostly observed among domestic forms. 

 This is true, because there are far more accessible for ordinary 

 observation than wild species. But with proper investigation 

 mutants may turn out to be as abundant in the field as in tlie 



