102 The Plant World. 



It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that even the 

 most ardent MendeHanist would claim that all characters in a 

 cross egregate in the offspring. The mulatto, or cross between 

 the white and black races of men, affords a most notable example 

 to the contrary, while diverse hybrids of the population of 

 Mexico exemplify the same principles abundantly. The author 

 has at his command an enormous amount of information con- 

 cerning heredity of color in animals and plants some of which 

 is well described in this volume. So far, the Mendelian ideas 

 have been of but little use to the breeder, but the practical ap- 

 plication of the information now available, would doubtless 

 result in the shortening of the long, tedious, and costly experi- 

 ments by which many new econ mic varieties are customarily 

 built up. 



NOTES AND COMMENT. 



In an abstract of a lecture on the San Bernardino Valley 

 in Torreya for January, there appears the following: 



"The moisture brought by the Pacific winds is precipitated 

 in crossing these mountains during the winter season only. At 

 the greater elevations, 10,000 to 12,000 feet, it is deposited as 

 snow; lower, in the form of copious rains, and in the valley itself 

 in a more or less scanty rainfall. During this period moisture is 

 not carried to the great interior plain of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, 

 New Mexico, and Arizona, where a dry season then prevails. In 

 the summer, conditions are exactly reversed, no rain whatever 

 falling west of the mountains." 



A glance at a map to be found in any high school, and five 

 minutes consultation with the publications of the U. S. Weather 

 Bureau, would reveal to the author of this statement some 

 startling discrepancies in his conclusions, since the great plains 

 mentioned offers the most diversified topography to be found in 

 North America, and it has two rainy seasons. Over much of 

 this area the precipitation is greater in winter than in summer. 



The Chief of the Weather Bureau has issued a pamphlet 

 for the enlightenment of the Committee on Agriculture of the 



