NOTES AND NEWS. 
Dr. G. J. PEIRCE, who has been reading in the botanical libraries at 
Harvard during the past year, takes the place of Prof. Mottier in In- 
diana University while the latter goes abroad. 
Mr. W. C. McDonaLp of Montreal has presented thirty-five acres 
of ground, conveniently situated and suitable, for the use of the 
botanic garden in connection with McGill University. 
DantEt Capy Eaton, professor of botany in Yale University, died 
at his residence in New Haven, Conn., on June 2gth, after a long ill- 
ness. A biographical sketch is printed elsewhere in this number. 
. M. DuGcaR AND Mr. W. H. Rusu have received the degree 
of Master of Arts from Harvard University. Mr. Duggar is to join the 
staff of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Champaign, IIl., and 
work on entomogenous fungi; Mr. Rush goes to Washington Univer- 
sity, St. Louis, Mo., as general instructor in botany. 
THE CELEBRATED Japanese lac with which the finest lacquering is 
done is produced from the latex of species of Rhus. M. G. Bertrand 
has pointed out (Compt. Rend. 118:1215. 1894) that the hardening and 
blackening of this material, upon which its use as lac depends, is not 
due to a sudden oxidation alone, but also to the operation of a fer- 
ment, laccase. 
DaNGEarp thinks that he has discovered the sexual sages in As- 
: i ] 
Hott & Co. announce the publication im December of the 
second volume of Beal’s “Grasses of Nort rica.” This volume 
1S to contain descriptions of about 1,000 species and varieties of 
gTasses, native and introduced, with carefully drawn illustrations of at 
least one species of each group, together with a chapter on the geo- 
graphical distribution of the plants of this family and a list of some 
of the most important contributions to their study. 
THE DOcTOR’s DEGREE was conferred upon three candidates in 
botany at the recent Harvard commencement. The recipients were 
morphology and _ parasi : 1 
Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt., as Burr professor of natural his- 
tory; Dr. Davis to Chicago University, as instructor in cryp 
botany. Dr. Richards has been spon 
at Leipzig. 
[379] 
