256 The Plant World. 



ture references under each disease. It is particularly compre- 

 hensive as respects the fungous diseases that have come to the 

 attention of British botanists at home or in their colonies, dis- 

 eases due to bacteria, nematodes and other organisms, however, 

 receive rather scant treatm.ent. 



NOTES AND COMMENT. 



The earnest efforts of the Secretary of Agriculture, seconded 

 by those of a large number of investigators in the Department of 

 Agriculture and by teachers in the agricultural colleges and the 

 universities of the country, are undoubtedly resulting in the col- 

 lection of an enormous number of important facts in plant physi- 

 ology, which is everywhere recognized as the scientific basis of 

 progress in practical agriculture, and yet the status of the real 

 science in the United States today is by no means encouraging. 

 It is doubtful if one could name off-hand more than half a dozen 

 universities in the whole country in which an adequately trained 

 plant physiologist is employed. Even in the few institutions in 

 which plant physiology is recognized and provided for as a dis- 

 tinct department, the incumbent is in nearly every case so 

 loaded down with the teaching of botany that he can give only 

 a fraction of his time to the advancement of his science. As 

 an example, the plant physiologist at the University of Michigan 

 is the professor of botany and is responsible, directly or indirect- 

 ly, for the botanical training of numerous teachers, forestry 

 students, pharmacists and various others. Such time as he can 

 wrest from his multitudionus duties is heroically given to in- 

 vestigation, but the fearful odds under which he works are sure 

 to prevent the successful output of finished work that might other- 

 wise be accomplished. At Stanford the case is similar, though 

 probably the professor at that institution is somewhat less hamp- 

 ered by administrative work. At Harvard the new man ap- 

 pears to have been appointed more because he was a good 

 teacher and could be depended upon to keep a lot of beginners 

 interested than through any expectation that he would have 

 time and means to build up his work in plant physiology. 



Not to go through a longer list of institutions, it appears at 

 this writing that Johns Hopkins University stands almost alone 



