226 



The Journal ot Heredity 



white sheath plants, may be due to the 

 \'arial)ility in expression resulting in an 

 improper classification. 



Crosses ha\e been made with plants 

 of other chlorophyll Aariations and the 

 first generations of such crosses inva- 

 riably are normal green in color. E\'en 

 in crosses with the variegated Japtmica 

 strains where the stripes commtmly 

 appear on the sheaths as well as the 

 blade, often resulting in a wide white 



band on the sheath, the first generation 

 plants ha\e normal green sheaths. In 

 a small population of a second genera- 

 tion hybrid between white sheaths and 

 Ivineate the white sheath character 

 reappeared but as yet the numbers are 

 too small to indicate relationships. A 

 stock of seed of this white sheath 

 N'ariation has been obtained and a 

 limited quantity will be supplied to 

 interested investigators. 



RECORDS SHOW NO RADICAL CHANGE IN 



SEASONS 



"The sea.sons are changing; we do 

 not have the cold weather we did 

 when I was a bo\'." Remarks similar 

 to this are frequently heard b\' rep- 

 resentatives of the Weather Bureau, 

 I'nited States Department of Ag- 

 riculture, but -'eports on the weather 

 dating as far back as 1780 show that 

 there has been no radical change in 

 the mean temperature from year to year. 



An official of the Weather Bureau 

 has compiled the following table from 

 records taken b>- \arious observers 

 previous to 1872 and from those 

 of the Weather Bureau Station at 

 New Haven, Conn., from 1873 to the 

 present. 



It will be Doled, tlu' official i)oints 

 out, that tile wannest liiri-e i)t'riods 



are those ending in 1800, 1810, and 

 1920, and that the coldest decade im- 

 mediately follows the second warmest. 



Considering the individual months 

 and the individual years, it is found 

 that the coldest January occurred as 

 late as 1857. The coldest February 

 occurred eight years after the warmest 

 one. The coldest March was as late 

 as 1870 and again n 1885. The coldest 

 April was in 1874, and many \'ears after 

 the warmest one. The lowest temper- 

 ature in May was in 1812, 1815, 1870, 

 and 1882. The highest figures in June 

 are in 1779, 1790, 1803, and 1876. In 

 July the lowest was in 1816, with the 

 warmest as early as 1780 and equaled 

 in 1876. The coldest August occurred 

 61 \ears after the warmest. In 

 September the coolest months are in the 

 earlier years, but for October, No\em- 

 ber, and December the coldest year 

 came after the warmest year in each 

 case. 



Thus it will be seen that in nine 

 months of the year the coldest one of 

 record occurred after the warmest one. 

 These figures seem to indicate \ery 

 clearly, the weather official sa>s, 

 that since the time of the Re\()lu- 

 tionar>- War, at least, there has been no 

 jx'rmanent change in temperture. — 

 Weekly Neics Leiler, U. S. Prpt. of 



