150 The Plant World. 



is paid to the handling of trees and shrubs as units in landscape 

 art, in connection with which are also some lists of species desir- 

 ablefor special purposes. 



NOTES AND COMMENT. 

 The last two lines of the second paragraph of comment upon 

 the climate of the southwest on page 102 of the Plant World 

 for April, should read, "North America, and this region has two 

 rainy seasons. Over much of this area the precipitation is 

 greater in winter than in summer." To this correction may be 

 added the further information that most locaHties above 3,500 

 or 4,000 feet altitude in this region receive more rainfall in winter 

 than in summer, and that the total for the winter may reach as 

 much as twenty or twenty-five inches. Prof. Ellsworth Hunting- 

 ton, of the Department of Geography of Yale University, has 

 recently traversed much of the southwestern desert for the pur- 

 pose of making a study of the climate, especially with respect to 

 secular variations within recent geologic time, and his results 

 promise to be of interest to all botanists. 



The extent to which institutions having for their primary 

 object the accumulation and dissemination of practical knowledge 

 in agriculture and horticulture are becoming centers of research 

 is illustrated by various recent publications. Reference to the 

 subjects discussed in the Yearbook of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for 1909, for example, shows very im- 

 pressively the wide range and the increasingly scientific character 

 of the work. Though professedly,..and actually, conducted on a 

 thoroughly practical basis, the matters under consideration and 

 the men detailed to their investigation make it plain that a large 

 part of the work is of lasting value from a scientific point of view. 

 The control and eradication of diseases of both plants and ani- 

 mals, the development of dry land agriculture, the introduction 

 and establishment of useful plants, the standardization of cotton, 

 and improvement of grains, the work of the great bureaus of 

 chemistry, soils, and others, the biological survey, and various 

 special investigations make up a part, and only a part, of the 

 yearly program of this great institution. 



