1889-] BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 131 



ive. The most notable of the few gardens in our own country is that at 

 Cambridge, and it would be a pertinent inquiry as to what share of credit 

 the garden is entitled in the ascendency of Harvard University, espec- 

 ially as a school of science. But the Cambridge garden has never at- 

 tempted to advance economic interests or to furnish diversion for visit- 

 ors; its finances have not permitted such expansion. For some time 

 past the subject of a botanic garden for New York city has been agitated, 

 and with encouraging results. Several of the New York dailies, with 

 medical, gardening and other journals, have advocated it. The move- 

 ment is, as it should be, under the direction of the Torrey Botanical Club. 

 Besides creating a strong public opinion in its favor, the club has secured 

 the passage of a resolution by the commissioners of public parks for 

 setting aside a suitable piece of ground in one of the new parks, provid- 

 ed a proper endowment fund be obtained within two years. The club 

 considers one million dollars the minimum amount required. To those 

 who know something of the cost of foreign gardens of this sort, the sum 

 will seem small enough. The new garden at Strassburg cost $22£ 

 and it comes far from being adequate to the needs of a great city like 

 New York. The success of this movement means not only a valuable 

 acquisition for the city and the people who have the opportunity of 

 visiting it, but a great boon to American botanical science. The Torrey 

 Club is entitled to all the support in this great undertaking her fellow 

 botanists can render. 



000 



CURRENT LITERATURE. 



Peach Vellows. 



Feacii wenows. 



The large handbooks of plant diseases by the German authors, Frank 

 and Sorauer, present a remarkable array of maladies in the vegetable 

 kingdom, far exceeding the number most persons would suppose possible. 

 B ^t, of the numerous diseases so far recognized, only a very small part 

 has received adequate study, and the number for which acceptable reme- 

 dies or preventives can be confidently prescribed is astonishingly small- 

 The German works referred to are the only comprehensive treatises of 

 the kind yet published, and still they do not include some of the most 

 prominent and destructive diseases which trouble the American cul- 



tivator. 



The increasing attention given to the subject in this country, by the 

 uuivator on the one hand, in recognizing the value of the work already 

 done, and by the investigator on the other hand, in more thorough study, 

 Particularly of the distinctively American maladies, present a hopeful 

 outlook for this branch of applied science. 



lseases 



Prominence, proved so unmanageable and has so effectively baffled all at- 



