130 THK PLANT WORI.D 



Editorial. 



The article which Mr. John Burroughs wrote for the Atlantic Moyithly 

 in March, 1903, severely criticising the writings of several other natu- 

 ralists, seems to have kindled a fire of discussion which although smoul- 

 dering for a time has now broken out with fierce vigor. The question at 

 issue is whether the remarkable stories and cited instances of animal 

 intelligence so familiar to us in the works of Thompson Seton, Long, 

 Roberts, and others can be considered authentic and accepted as observa- 

 tions of scientific value ; or whether in the attempt to make a readable 

 book some of these gentlemen have not taken undue liberties with nature 

 and indulged themselves in a little harmless romancing. The question 

 is one which can scarcely fail to interest the plant student, even though 

 it may not concern him very closely. Owing to the limitations of plant 

 growth and existence, any attempt to record observations of dubious 

 authenticity could be in most cases easily detected. 



The discussion to which we refer has for the most part been carried on 

 in the pages of Scie?ice. The Plant World does not care to express an 

 opinion on the controversy at the present time ; but we regret that the 

 argiunentinn ad hoviinem should have been made so prominent a feature 

 of the criticisms expressed by various scientists in the articles that have 

 come to our notice. 



OBITUARY. 



The botanical world has lost a number of its most highly esteemed 

 and accomplished members during the past few weeks. The death of 

 Dr. Karl Schumann, of Berlin, removes one of the most scholarly and 

 skilled of German taxonomists. Dr. Schumann was especially known 

 for his work on the cacti, though he had also specialized in the Asclepi- 

 adaceae and Apocynaceae. 



In this country, the death of Mr. William M. Canby, of Wilmington, 

 Delaware, removes from us one of the most kindly and genial of gentle- 

 men as well as one of the few surviving contemporaries of the early days 

 of Gray and Torrey. Mr. Canby was known as an enthusiastic collector 

 and patron of collectors ; his immense private herbarium was sold to 

 the New York College of Pharmacy some years ago, but he immediately 

 began another for the Delaware Society of Natural History, which had 

 attained large proportions. 



