128 
NOTES 
According to Nature, Casimir De Candolle, the well-known 
Swiss botanist, died at Geneva, on October 3, 1918. He was the 
third generation of botanists in the same family. It was his 
grandfather, Alphonse Pyramus, who initiated the monumental 
Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, and carried 
it through the seventh volume. Volumes 8-17 were by his son, 
August, father of Casimir. 
A new association, the Agricultural History Society, was or- 
ganized at Washington, D. C., February 14, 1919. The object 
of the society, as stated in the constitution, is “To stimulate in- 
terest, promote the study, and facilitate the publication Giales 
searches in the history of agriculture.” This is one of several 
illustrations of the growing interest in the United States in the 
study of the history of science. Several books and articles have 
recently appeared on the subject, and one of those most active in 
promoting this study is Professor George Sarton, of Belgium, 
and editor of Isis, a magazine devoted to the history and philos- 
ophy of science. 
The Appalachian Mountain Club held their outing of March 
22 in the Japanese Garden and Prospect Park. The party under 
the guidance of Mr. William Patterson was met at the north Flat- 
bush Ave. gate by Dr. Gundersen of the Garden staff, and con- 
ducted through the Japanese Garden, Rock Garden and other 
portions of our grounds. 
On Tuesday evening, March 25, an exhibition of four motion 
picture reels of plant life was held in the lecture room under the 
joint auspices of the Torrey Botanical Club and the Botanic Gar- 
den. In addition to popular films showing the strawberry indus- 
try in Kentucky and the forest planting at the source of the water 
supply of Portland, Oregon, there were two other films—one show- 
ing how girdled fruit trees may be saved by bridge grafting, and 
the other showing the penetration of the tissue of a potato tuber 
by the filament of the parasitic fungus causing the disease known 
as “Potato Leak.” The films were explained by Dr. R. B. 
Harvey, Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
