Co The ]\ est American Scientist. 



culturistxw previous years, and his extensive field experiments 

 inaugurated (through the same magazine) in many parts of the 

 country, were the most extensive co-operative enterprises of the 

 kind ever undertaken. His articles on food in the Century 

 Magazine have gained him a wide reputation. He is now 

 director of the Storrs Agricultural School Experiment Station in 

 Connecticut and chief of the Experiment Station Bureau in the 

 Department of Agriculture at Washington. In the latter capacity 

 especially he has a large field for usefulness, and enjoys the con- 

 fidence of practical farmers as well as of scientific workers. 



A specimen of Haliotis Cracherodii was recently seen in a San 

 Diego shell store, with a brilliant red epidermis like that of H. 

 rufescens. Another shell belonjing to H. corrugata possessed 

 an equally curious epidermis, of a purplish or violet color. The 

 color in both of these shells was natural and a most beautiful 

 freak of nature. 



Boys will be strongly attracted by E. H. Barbour's biography 

 of a two-headed turtle, in St. Nicholas for May, and regret the 

 "Queer Pet's" early decease; and they will share with their sisters 

 keen enjoyment of the mischievous "Cuff, the Orphan Bear-cub." 



A new volume of The Century began with the May number, 

 the frontispiece cf which is one of Mrs. Foote's pictures of the 

 Far West, "Cinching Up." The most timely papers are a series 

 on "Samoa: Ths Isles of the Navigators." The first is by Dr. H. 

 W. Whitaker, of the U. S. Navy, and is profusely illustrated. 

 The second, also illustrated, is on "Our Relations to Samoa," by 

 Mr. Geo. H. Bates. The third paper in this series is a brief one 

 by Captain Erben of the U. S Navy, who commanded the 

 "Tuscarora" when it took Steinberger to Samoa in 1875. 



From forty careful drawings of the planet Mars at the Lick 

 Observatory in July and August, 1888, showing the details of the 

 canals as seen through the great telescope, none has been seen 

 doubled, as asserted and drawn by European observers of late 

 years. The submerged continent had also reappeared in the 

 great telescope in its former contour. 



Dr. David Dietrich, author of the extensive Forest-Flora, and 

 curator of the herbarium of the University of Jena, died October 

 23, 1888, in his ninetieth year. 



C. G. Pringle's distribution for 18S8 includes about 300 species 

 of plants, mainly collected in the Mexican states of Chihuahua, 

 Nuevo Leon, and Jalisco, Lists will be furnished on application. 

 (His address is Charlotte, Vermont). 



On April 6th, 1889, at Wichita, Kansas, the Wichita Academy 

 of Science was organized. Its object is 'to promote the study of 

 science and stimulate original investigation." The correspond- 

 ing secretary is Fred. L. Johnson, M. D. 



