180 ERYTHEA. 



The Gardener's CAromeZe, of London, in a recent editorial, laments 

 the imperfect equipment of the students sent to India as foresters 

 and as physicians, and attributes the lack of preparation to the 

 neglect in recent years of the study of morphology and classification; 

 in other words, what is often termed "systematic botany." While 

 botany as taught in the olden time was one of the most unpopular 

 items in the medical curriculum, nevertheless, in spite of deficient 

 methods, many did acquire a working knowledge which was most 

 useful to them in after life. The labors of the botanists of India, 

 almost all of whom learned their botany on tlie benches of the 

 medical schools, has been as remarkable for practical consequences 

 and direct benefit to mankind as for influence in the extension of 

 knowledge. While vegetable histology is of great importance, the 

 editorial writer insists in the first place on the necessity of a wider 

 and more comprehensive knowledge than familiarity with the 

 details of the cell and the making of beautiful preparations. 



During the current year Dr. Wiegand, of Cornell University, 

 has published, in the Bulletin of the Torrey Club, a useful revision of 

 Listera (26:157) and another of the species of Bideus found in the 

 United States and Canada (26:399). He credits to California 

 Listera convallarioides and also L. cordata. The practise of citing 

 a Pacific Coast locality as "California" or "Oregon" is one con- 

 stantly indulged in by contributors to the Torrey Bulletin. Dr. 

 Wiegand in some cases cites the exact locality or county, which 

 it is desirable should always be done, particularly in the case of a 

 plant so rare in California as Listera cordata. Of Bidens, four 

 species are attributed to California, namely, B. frondosa, cernua, 

 Isevis, and Nashii. 



An experiment of considerable importance to progress on the 

 material side of botany is to be made by Secretary Wilson, of the 

 Department of Agriculture. Graduates of the land-grant colleges 

 who are taking up special lines of research and who, by the publi- 

 cation of theses or papers, have demonstrated their fitness, may be 

 appointed "Scientific Aids to the Department of Agriculture." 

 These Aids will be paid $40 per month, and the nature of their 

 duties will be such that the positions will be practically the equiva- 



