MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND NEWS. 195 
importance of the entire fauna and flora of Indiana. In 
order to do this it will be necessary ‘to associate the various 
workers and co-relate their labors that all may work together 
towards a definite end. L. M. Underwood is one of the 
directors of the Survey and Chief of the Division of Botany. 
The special work of this season in botany will be a study of 
distribution, particularly of the lower cryptogams and of the 
rarer forms of flowering plants and ferns. Surveys of such 
a character are quite the fashion and it is gratifying to note 
that the gauge of this enterprise is broad enough to accom- 
modate with equal ease the two members of biological 
science. 
PHANEROGAMIC botanists are familiar with the tuberous 
growths on the roots of species of Leguminose, par- 
ticularly those of lupines and clovers. In this connection 
an article in the May number of Nature on “ Bacteria, their 
Nature and Function,” is interesting. It is there stated that 
the excess of nitrogen in Leguminose is obtained from the 
atmosphere by the instrumentality of bacteria in the soil 
around the roots of the leguminous plants, that these bacteria 
“fix” the free nitrogen contained in the soil, derived of 
course, from the atmosphere; and that if the soil be sterilized, 
by which the bacteria are killed, no fixation of nitrogen can 
take place, and the growth of the leguminous plants remains 
appreciably attenuated. The nodular growths on roots grow- 
ing in ordinary soil have been thoroughly investigated 
by a large number of observers, and their importance 
in the process of fixing the nitrogen, and in the proper 
development of the plant, has been satisfactorily worked 
out. It has, too, been shown that the nodules on the 
roots owe their origin to the growth in the tissues of the root 
of certain bacteria, and it is these bacteria which are instru- 
mental in fixing the free nitrogen. 
AN International Congress of Botanists convened August 
24th at Madison, Wisconsin, succeeding the meetings of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
Professor Greene was elected President of the Congress. 
