602 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



a new agricultural hall. The plans provide for a stone building 85 by 125 feet and 

 three stories high. It is to provide laboratories and class rooms for the departments 

 of agriculture, chemistry, zoology and entomology, botany and horticulture, and 

 bacteriology. On the first floor will be a large stock judging room and the dairy 

 department, while the attic is to be finished for the agricultural museum. The 

 building, exclusive of fixtures, is to cost about $40,000. 



Porto Rico Statiox. — The heavy rains and trade winds damaged the experi- 

 mental crops during the months of Deceml)er and January. The native crops are 

 doing well, but most northern vegetables are seriously affected by fungus and insect 

 pests. The "changa," a mole cricket, continues to damage all crops in spite of all 

 remedies. It is much more destructive in sandy soils. Among the 80 or 90 experi- 

 mental crops the following attract considerable attention from visitors: Arrowroot 

 {Marania amndinacea) , ginger, llerenes (an excellent root crop), 3 kinds of true 

 yams, tropical varieties of sweet potatoes, 7 varieties of "yautia" (the Hawaiian 

 "taro"), Spanish peanuts, 4 kinds of cassava, the "teyote," teosinte, narcissi, hya- 

 cinths, freesias, 5 varieties of Bermuda and Japanese lilies, and palms for the florists' 

 trade. 



Annual Report of Office of Experiment Stations. — A new departure has been 

 followed this year with reference to the various Congressional reports of the Oflace of 

 Experiment Stations. These reports have been combined, and reports of other lines 

 of work added, making an annual report of the Office for the year 1901, which has 

 recently been transmitted to Congress. The volume includes the report of the Office 

 on the work and expenditvires of the experiment stations, the separate reports of the 

 stations in Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico, describing the progress of the former 

 and the establishment and inauguration of work at the latter, and reports of the 

 nutrition and the irrigation branches. The report as a whole makes a volume of 

 upward of 400 pages, and is illustrated by 41 plates. It corresponds in a general ' 

 way to the annual reports of the Bureau of Animal Industry and the Bureau of 

 Soils, and has been suggested by the increased scope and diversity of interests of the 

 Office, which now embrace eight quite distinct lines of work, each in charge of a 

 separate oflicer. An edition of 6,000 copies has been requested, and it is planned to 

 print separates of the different parts. 



BoTANiscHEs Cextralblatt. — The first number of this journal under the new 

 management has appeared. The Association Intermitionale des Botanistes, organized 

 at Geneva, August 8, 1901, which purchased all rights from the former editors, will 

 issue the CentralUatt as formerly— the abstracts in a weekly periodical and original 

 articles in the Beihefte. The new editor in chief is Dr. J. P. Lotzy, formerly of Johns 

 Hopkins University, and later connected with the cinchona investigations at Tjibodas, 

 Java. A board of 75 assistant editors from different countries is provided, who are 

 to make especial efforts to abstract all botanical publications appearing in their 

 countries. In this way it is hoped the reviews of literature will be made more com- 

 plete and appear more promptly. The American editors and their specialties are: 

 Drs. D. H. Campl)ell, Leland Stanford University, morphology; C. J. Chamlierlain, 

 University of Chicago, cytology; D. T. MacDougal, New York Botanic Gorden, 

 physiology; G. T. Moore, U. S. Department of Agriculture, alga?; D. P. Penhallow, 

 McGill University, paleobotany; H. von Schrenk, Shaw School of Botany, fungi and 

 vegetable pathology; and W. Trelease, Missouri Botanic Gardens, systematic 

 phanerogams. In order that delay may be avoided in securing the publication of 

 abstracts of American papers, authors are requested to send marked copies of their 

 publications to the editor in charge of the subject treated, or where separates are 

 not available, to call the appropriate editor's attention to the paper. The place of 

 publication of the Centmlblatt has been changed from Berlin to Leyden, Holland. 



Personal mention. — Nature, for January 2, 1902, contains an unsigned article ou 

 the life of Sir J. Henry Gilbert. The article mentions the fact that while a school- 



