NEWS. 
THE Society for the promotion of Agricultural Science, at its recent 
meeting in Detroit, elected Professor B. D. Halsted, of New Brunswick, N. J., 
president for the ensuing year. The next meeting will be held in Boston in 
August 1898. The society includes a considerable proportion of active 
anists among its members, and many papers of botanical interest are 
presented before it. 
TO DETERMINE more exactly the distribution of the several trees popu- 
larly known as pignuts (including Azcoria odorata or H. microcarpa), Mr. 
W. W. Ashe, forester of the North Carolina Geological Survey, would be glad 
; to get specimens of these trees, especially from Michigan, central New York, 
: New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, and from all the southwestern 
States. The essential parts of a hickory specimen are vigorous twigs with 
well developed buds, and fruit and leaves. If desired he will return any 
material sent, and will determine any for persons wishing it. He may be 
addressed at Raleigh, N.C. 
THE SUBTROPICAL LABORATORY at Eustis, Florida, under the direction of 
the Division of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology of the Department of 
Agriculture, has been a ndoned as a station, and Messrs. Swingle and 
j Secured at Miami, Florida, where experiments can be conducted, and where 
work can be done with laboratory facilities whenever desired. It is expected 
to make a feature of introducing and testing varieties of tropical plants which 
can be grown successfully in the tropical and subtropical portions of the 
United States. Extensive experiments have been made in crossing and 
hybridizing the orange and other citrous fruits, pineapples, guavas, etc., and 
the resulting hybrids will be cultivated in this garden. It will also serve as a 
tropical station for amelioration experiments in the modification of some of 
our native fruits 
IN THE AMERICAN NATURALIST for October there appears a brief bio- 
_ 8taphical sketch, with portrait, of the late Dr. James Ellis Humphrey. The 
Sudden death of this most promising young American botanist came as a 
Sreat shock to the whole botanical fraternity. From the sketch referred to 
en ai of his life and work are selected : 
