THE PLANT WOELD 195 



GENERAL ITEMS. 



The field work of the Division of Agrostology from the date of its 

 establishment by Congress in 1895, is made the subject of an interest- 

 ing report by C. L. ^hear. It is taken up by regions, showing that 

 work has been done in all parts of the country, and is profusely illus- 

 trated. 



Mr. Frederick V. Coville, noticing Dr. Knowlton's reference to 

 yarrow as an abundant weed in the John Day Vallej^ of Oregon, calls 

 our attention to the fact that this western yarrow has been shown to be 

 a distinct species from the one with which we are familiar in the east. 

 The western yarrow is entirely a native plant, and was so recognized 

 by Nuttall, who gave it the name Achillea lamdosa on account of the 

 densely woolly herbage. In discussing the use made of the yarrow hj 

 the Klamath Indians, Mr. Coville remarks that it is "from the e^^- 

 dence of its occurrence even in very remote and unsettled parts of the 

 plains and from the statements of the Indians, unquestionably native in 

 our Northwest " (Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb. 5: 105. 1897). 



The outlook for gardening and some agriculture in the cold inter- 

 ior region of Alaska, along the Yukon, is made quite encouraging by 

 official reports recently received at the U. S. Department of Agriculture 

 at Washington. Professor C. C. Georgesen, who is in charge of the 

 Alaska experiment stations, has spent the summer in the interior and 

 along the Yukon Valley, visiting the experiment station established by 

 the Department of Agricvlture last year at Hampart, just outside the 

 Arctic Circle, and other points where experiments were arranged for. 

 Good gardens were found all along the route, especially at Eagle Cit^' 

 and Holy Cross Mission. Although the season was unusually late this 

 year, new potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, beets, and other vegetables 

 were ready for the table before the middle of August, and lettuce, rad- 

 ishes, and turnips, grown in the open had been in use for some weeks. 

 Flower gardens containing a large variety of annuals grown from seed 

 furnished last year were in full bloom. At the station at Rampart, rye 

 seeded the previous fall wintered perfectly and was ripe in Juh^ Sirring 

 seeded barley had ripened about the middle of August, and there was 

 ^]^^ite a prospect for oats and wheat to mature. 



