THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 15 



the Bureau : namely, Mr. E. D. Merrill, chief botanist, and 

 Dr. W. H. Brown, assistant botanist. With this depleted force 

 the amount of scientific and economic work is more than com- 

 mensurate with what was being done a year ago. 



Routine ivork. — Mr. Merrill has continued, as in the preceding 

 year, as associate professor of botany and acting chief of the 

 department of botany in the University of the Philippines. 

 Instruction has been given to a total of about 90 students in 

 five courses ; two of the courses have been under the personal 

 direction of Mr. Merrill. Although he is detailed to the Uni- 

 versity for half time, during the present semester he actually 

 spends in class work as many hours as full-time men. The 

 depletion of the botanical force in the Bureau of Science made 

 it necessary for Mr. Merrill to take over extra University 

 work — work for which Mr. Graff of this Bureau was detailed 

 last year — and thus to spend a large amount of time that could 

 have been devoted profitably to botanical investigation. In addi- 

 tion to his work in the College of Liberal Arts, Mr. Merrill 

 has also given a series of 10 lectures on medical botany to the 

 students in the post-graduate medical course. Mr. Merrill is 

 unusually energetic, and no doubt this work can be carried for 

 a period of some months without seriously encroaching upon 

 his regular work. However, it is manifestly impracticable for 

 him to continue indefinitely devoting so much time to this work 

 of instruction. 



The nature and volume of the general routine work has con- 

 tinued to be about the same as for the preceding year, taxing 

 our efi'orts to the utmost to accomplish the work with the present 

 equipment and laboratory force. A considerable amount of the 

 time of the mycologist was taken in reporting on diseased plants 

 and parts of plants submitted by planters and others. Wher- 

 ever possible, the fungus causing the trouble was determined 

 and the remedy prescribed. In taxonomy the only group worked 

 locally is the Basidiomycetes, all other fungi being submitted to 

 specialists. The fungus Metarrhizium anisoplioe Sor., known 

 as "green muscardine," which is parasitic on the coconut borer, 

 has been isolated from specimens of the insect that had been 

 killed by the fungus. Pure cultures of this parasite have been 

 supplied to the government entomologist of German Samoa, to 

 the mycologist of the Hawaiian Experiment Station, and to 

 the Philippine Bureau of Agriculture for use in combating 

 the pest. 



The herbarium. — The burden of the herbarium work has fal- 

 len on the chief botanist since the assistant botanist is engaged 



