234 THE PLANT WORLD 



GENERAL ITEMS. 



The seventh annual winter meeting of the Vermont Botanical Club 

 will be held at Burlington on January 24th and 25th, on which occasion 

 they will be addressed by Dr. B. L. Robinson, of the Gray Herbarium, 

 who will speak npon " Some Recent Advances in the Classification of 

 Flowering Plants." This organization is one of the best in the coun- 

 try, and is doing excellent work, which we could wish to see emulated 

 elsewhere. 



While spending a few days with a botanical friend in Connecticut, 

 my attention was called to a peculiar exudation on the berries of the 

 staghorn sumach {Rhisiliirta). It looked like salt. I was told that an 

 excellent drink could be made from the same. On tasting, I had my 

 doubts as to the excellence. Several branches of berries were steeped 

 in water for some hours, the water strained and sweetened, the result 

 being a splendid lemonade — or should one say sumach ade — with a 

 more refined taste than that made with either limes or lemons. — Pauline 

 Kaufman, New York City. 



Some time ago we mentioned the fact that the Bureau of Forestry 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture had offered to prepare plans for 

 the scientific management of private forest tracts in various parts of the 

 country. The quickness with which this offer was accepted is well 

 shown by the fact that within two years they have been given the man- 

 agement of more than a million and a half of acres of private forest 

 land in the South alone, and have in hand requests for the handling of 

 more than 2,500,000 in other sections. The Baltimore k Ohio Railroad 

 Company has asked for a working plan for a tract of 125,000 acres of 

 their forest land in southeastern West Virginia, and other corporations 

 are doing likewise. All this shows better than anything else can the 

 marvelous advance made by scientific forestry within the past decade, 

 and it may be accepted as a sure indication that public sentiment has 

 at last been thoroughly aroused. It now really seems that something 

 will be done before it is too late, to save our priceless forests. 



