456 A CENTUEY OF SCIENCE 



est in geographical botany. In this important branch, 

 besides his contributions, one finds, among many others, 

 snch papers as LeConte's "Flora of the Coast Islands of 

 California in Relation to Recent Changes of Physical 

 Geography" (34, 457, 1887), and Sargent's "Forests of 

 Central Nevada" (17, 417, 1879). Examination reveals 

 a surprising number of communications which bear indi- 

 rectly upon this subject. 



Paleontological Botany. 



When the Journal began its career, the subject of fossil 

 plants was very obscure. Brongniart's papers, espe- 

 cially the Journal translations, enabled the students in 

 America to undertake the investigation of such fossils 

 and the results were to a considerable extent published 

 in the Journal. Since the subject belongs as much to 

 geology as to botany, it finds its appropriate home in the 

 pages of the Journal. The recent papers on this topic 

 show how great has been the advance in methods and 

 results since the early days of the Journal's century. 

 Under the care of George R. Wieland, the communica- 

 tions and the bibliographical notices of paleontological 

 treatises show the progress which he and others are mak- 

 ing in this attractive field. 



Economic Botany, Plant Physiology, etc. 



At the outset, the Journal, as we have seen, devoted 

 much attention to certain phases of economic botany, and, 

 even down to the present, it has maintained its hold upon 

 the subject. The correspondence of Jerome Nickles from 

 1853 to 1867 brought before its readers a vast number of 

 valuable items which would not in any other way have 

 been known to them. And the Journal dealt wisely with 

 the scientific side of agriculture, under the hands of S. W. 

 Johnson and J. H. Gilbert, and others, placing it on its 

 proper basis. This work was supplemented by Norton's 

 remarkable work in the chemistry of certain plants, the 

 oat, for example, and certain plant-products. In fact it 

 might be possible to construct from the pages of the 

 Journal a fair synopsis of the important principles of 

 agronomy. 



