50 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science. 
of the Great Lakes, but are restricted to the bogs of the North Pacific 
and North Atlantic coastal regions. The recognition of the numerous 
species of the genus Sphagnum is by no means easy, and on that account 
there has fallen to the few botanists of this country who are familiar 
with the genus the task of supervising the collection of suitable material 
for the use of the Red Cross. The British War Office, the Canadian 
Red Cross, and the American Red Cross have used large quantities of 
sphagnum moss for the making of dressings, and so satisfactory has it 
proven that it seems likely that, even in times of peace, it will continue 
to be extensively used for this purpose.’ 
In a symposium on War Problems in Botany at the meeting of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science at Pittsburgh in 
December, 1917, an appeal was made by Dr. G. R. Lyman, pathologist 
in charge of the plant disease survey of the United States Department 
of Agriculture, for effective organization of botanists and correlation of 
their efforts toward the increase in food production and conservation of 
food so essential to the military success of ourselves and our allies. The 
principal practical outgrowth of this appeal was the organization at 
Pittsburgh of the War Board of American Pathologists by the members 
of the American Phytopathological Society there present. The War 
Board had as its object the increase of the product of land already under 
cultivation by means of emergency plant disease research, and by a more 
extensive application of the measures known to plant pathologists for 
the reduction of crop diseases; and the reduction of the losses by disease 
of fruits, vegetables and other plant products in transit or storage. 
In the pursuit of these objects a number of measures were carried 
out by the War Board. A man-power survey was undertaken to deter- 
mine what botanists, not already engaged in plant pathology, were pre- 
pared and willing to do emergency work on plant diseases. This survey 
was made necessary not only by the extensive program of work planned 
by the War Board but also by the large number of trained pathologists 
which had been lost for the time being to the science by reason of 
enlistment and conscription. 
Estimates were prepared, showing more accurately than any previous 
estimates had shown, the losses due to diseases of the staple crops in the 
year 1917. These figures revealed that, in spite of the absence of any 
serious epidemic during that year, the loss in cereals alone, due to plant 
diseases largely preventable by already known methods, was over four 
hundred million bushels; and that the control of two diseases of wheat— 
1For the facts in this paragraph the author is indebted to the article entitled, 
“Sphagnum as a Surgical Dressing,’’ by J. W. Hotson, Science, N. S. Vol. XLVII, 
No. 1235. 
