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FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



September, 19SS 



Field Museum of Natural History 



Founded by MarshaU Field, 1S93 

 Rooserelt Road and Lake Michigan, Chicago 



TEffi BOARD OF TRUSTEES 



Sewell L. Avery 

 John Borden 

 WnjjAU J. Chalmers 

 Marshall Field 

 Stanley Field 

 Ernest R. Grahah 

 Albert W. Harris 

 Samuel Insull, Jr. 

 Cyrus H. McCorhice 



John P. 



William H. MrrcHBU. 

 Frederick H. Rawson 

 George A. Richardson 

 Fred W. Sargent 

 Stephen G. SncMS 

 James Simpson 

 Solomon A. Smith 

 Albert A. Spragub 

 Silas H. Strawn 

 Wilson 



OFFICERS 



Stanley Field Praidmt 



Albert A. Spragub Fini Viee-PrttUent 



Jambs Simpson Second Vict-Praident 



Albert W. Harris Third Vue-Pretident 



Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary 



Solomon A. Smith . . . Treaturer and Aaistant Secretary 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Stephen C. Simhs, Director o/ the Museum Editor 



CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 



Berthold Laufer Curator of Anthropology 



B. E. Dahlgrbn Acting Curator of Botany 



Oliver C^Farrington Curator of Geology 



Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology 



H. B. Harte Managing Editor 



Field Museum is open every day of the year during 

 the hours indicated below: 



November, December, January 9 AJI. to 4:30 p.m. 



February, March, April, October 9 am. to 6:00 p.m. 

 May, June, July, August, September 9 ajj. to 6:00 pjj. 



Admission is free to Members on all days. Other 

 adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and 

 Sundays; non-members pay 35 cents on other days. 

 Children are admitted free on all days. Students and 

 faculty members of educational institutions are admit- 

 ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. 



The Museum's natural history Library is open for 

 reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. 



Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of 

 Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension 

 Department of the Museum. 



Lectures for schools, and special entertainments 

 and tours for children at the Museum, are provided 

 by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond 

 Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. 



Annoimcements of free illustrated lectures for the 

 public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, 

 will appear in Field Museum News. 



A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms 

 are provided for those bringing their lunches. 



Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go 

 direct to the Museum. 



Members are requested to inform the Museum 

 promptly of changes of address. 



MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM 



Field Museum has several classes of Members. 

 Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- 

 tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members 

 give $500; Non- Resident Life and Associate Members 

 pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. 

 All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining 

 Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they 

 become Associate Members. Annual Members con- 

 tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- 

 rate, Honorary, Patron, and Corresponding, additions 

 under these classifications being made by special action 

 of the Board of Trustees, 



Each Member, in all dasses, is entitled to free 

 admission to the Musetim for himself, his family and 

 house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum 

 lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field 

 Museum News is included with all memberships. The 

 courtesies of every museum of note in the United 

 States and Canada are extended to all Members of 

 Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card 

 to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of 

 which they will be admitted to the Museum without 

 charge. Further information about memberships will 

 be sent on request. 



BEQUESTS AND ENIKJWMENTS 



Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may 

 be made in securities, money, books or collections. 

 They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to 

 a person or cause, named by the giver. 



Cash contributions made within the taxable year 

 not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income 

 are allowable as deductions in computing net income 

 under Article 251 of Regulation 69 relating to the 

 income tax under the Revenue Act of 1926. 



Endowments may be made to the Museum with the 

 provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. 

 These annuities are tax-free and are guaranteed against 

 fluctuation in amount. 



RAGWEED AND HAY FEVER 



By Paul C. Standley 

 Associate Curator of the Herbarium 



Every year many articles in newspapers 

 and scientific publications are devoted to 

 poison ivy, but the persons affected by that 

 plant are relatively few, and are only those 

 who actually come into contact with the 

 plant as it grows in the fields and woods. 

 A greater cause of discomfort to the human 

 race is found in the plants that cause hay 

 fever, for these pursue their victims to the 

 cities, and cause there, among a denser 

 population, a still greater amount of suffering 

 than in the thinly inhabited regions where 

 they grow. 



As is well known, hay fever, an affection 

 that causes such acute distress to its many 

 victims and arouses so little sympathy 

 among onlookers, is caused by the inhalation 

 of wind-blown pollen of various plants. In 

 Illinois there are three well-marked hay 

 fever seasons: in April and May, when 

 cottonwoods, elms, and oaks are in flower; 

 in June, when bluegrass, timothy, and other 

 grasses are blooming; and, of prime impor- 

 tance, a period from the middle of August 

 to mid-September, when ragweeds are in 

 full bloom. 



Many other plants besides those men- 

 tioned are responsible for hay fever, but 

 they are of minor importance. In northern 

 Illinois they include such varied weeds as 

 cocklebur, Russian thistle, lamb's quarters, 

 pigweed, English plantain, and many others. 



The ragweeds, however, are by far the 

 most important cause of hay fever. Two 

 kinds grow almost everywhere about 

 Chicago: the common ragweed, that abounds 

 on dusty roadsides, in harvested grain fields, 

 and in vacant city lots; and the giant rag- 

 weed, that prefers low moist ground, 

 especially in stream valleys, but thrives all 

 too well in the waste land in Chicago. 

 Both these plants are illustrated by lifelike 

 reproductions in the Hall of Plant Life 

 (Hall 29) in Field Museum. 



Of all the annual weeds native in northern 

 Illinois, none grows so rapidly and vigor- 

 ously as giant ragweed. Large tracts of 

 lowland in the Calumet region oft«n are 

 overgrown with the plants, six to ten feet 

 high and so dense that it is almost impossible 

 to force a way through them. Not even 

 in the most favored sections of the tropics, 

 probably, is it possible to find more luxuriant 

 plant covering. 



Each year about the middle of August 

 some effort is made to destroy the ragweed 

 patches that occupy the waste land in 

 Chicago, in order to lessen hay fever 

 suffering. While these local weeds are a 

 menace to people living near them, ragweed 

 pollen is so light that it is carried long 

 distances by the wind, and there is an 

 ample supply of it everywhere throughout 

 the farming regions. Cutting the ragweed 

 in the city, therefore, is of little value in 

 relieving hay fever patients, and there is 

 no hope that relief may ever be obtained 

 for them by suppression of the source of 

 the aflSiction. 



LABRADOR SEA TROUT 



By Alfred C. Weed 

 Assistant Curator of Fishes 



Many fishermen are surprised to learn 

 that eastern brook trout or speckled trout 

 frequently go to the sea in summer and 

 spend several months growing fat on the 

 abundant food in bays and inlets. It is 

 even more astonishing to find that a close 

 relative of the European charr is found in 

 North America and spends most of its life 

 in the sea. This fish is called "trout" in 



Greenland and "sea trout" along the 

 Labrador coast. 



A fine male sea trout, collected by the 

 Second Rawson- MacMillan Subarctic Ex- 

 pedition to Labrador and Baffin Land 

 (1927-28), has been reproduced in celluloid 

 by Staff Taxidermist Arthur G. Rueckert 

 and is now on exhibition in Albert W. 

 Harris Hall (Hall 18). 



The salmon family, as understood at 

 present, is divided into three great groups: 

 the Pacific salmon; the Atlantic salmon 

 and its relatives, including brown, rainbow, 

 steelhead, and cut-throat trouts; and the 

 charrs, including the European charr and 

 the DoUy Varden, eastern brook, and lake 

 trouts. The charrs are generally supposed 

 to confine themselves strictly to fresh water. 

 With the exception of the lake trout, they 

 live mainly in the smaller streams, frequently 

 at high altitudes. 



European varieties of charr range from 

 small residents of Alpine brooks to fish 

 almost as large as salmon found in Sweden 

 and Norway. Varieties of the same species 

 are found in North America and Greenland. 

 In streams of Baffin Land and Greenland 

 they often reach a length of more than 

 three feet, and weigh more than twenty 

 pounds. 



In Labrador, these sea trout spawn in 

 the streams and probably spend their 

 winters in lakes and deep pools. As soon 

 as the ice opens up enough so they can 

 travel in the rivers, they go down to the 

 sea, where they stay until the approach of 

 freezing weather starts them toward the 

 breeding grounds. The young trout go to 

 salt water when they are about a year old, 

 and sometimes stay there through their 

 second winter. 



While living in the sea, these trout are 

 colored similarly to the whitefish or lake 

 herring. Their sides are silvery and their 

 backs pearly green or blue. When they go 

 up the streams to the spawning beds, their 

 colors change. The back becomes a deep 

 greenish or brownish black in which the 

 brilliant red spots characteristic of charrs 

 gleam like fiery coals. The silvery color 

 of the sides of the males changes to a brilliant 

 vermilion. The lower fins are vermilion, 

 with borders of white. The sides of the 

 females are even more brilliant, shining 

 with an intense pure blood-red. 



HOPI POTTERY 



The Hopi Indians were manufacturing 

 excellent pottery when first encountered by 

 Spanish explorers in 1540. They or their 

 ancestors had likewise turned out fine wares 

 for centuries before the arrival of the 

 Spaniards. 



After the Spanish conquest, a marked 

 degeneration of the industry set in. Many 

 pueblos abandoned entirely the art of 

 pottery-making, while others continued it 

 but with a very poor technique. 



In 1897, however, some archaeological 

 work was being done by the late Dr. J. W. 

 Fewkes at one of the ancient Hopi towns. 

 One of the potters of a near-by village saw 

 the beautiful pottery which was being 

 excavated from graves. She was so inspired 

 by the sight of the ancient wares that she 

 began to copy their designs. As a result 

 the Hopi potters at present are turning out 

 fine work which is a skillful imitation of 

 the lost style. 



A collection of Hopi pottery has just 

 been installed in Hall 7. Here may be 

 seen pottery that was made about 1540, 

 1850, and 1910, together with an exhibit 

 which illustrates the Hopi process of pottery 

 manufacture step by step. 



