498 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [JUNE 1899 
THE STATE FORESTRY STATION, near Santa Monica, California, under 
the charge of Mr. C. A. Colmore, has an interesting collection of Eucalyptus, 
about sixty species being represented. The chief object of the station is to 
determine by actual experiment the adaptibility of different trees and shrubs 
to the climatic conditions of the region in which it is located, and to dissem- 
inate information on forestry and arbor-culture. With limited means the 
indefatigable superintendent is carrying on a most important work and one 
that suggests the great desirability of the multiplication of such stations 
throughout the United States.—V. M. SPALDING. 
Mr. E. H. HARRIMAN, a prominent railroad official, wishing to visit 
Alaska, has invited a party of scientific men to accompany him by special 
train and steamer.. Among the party are several botanists: Dr. William 
Trelease, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden; Mr. F. V. Coville, 
Chief of the Division of Botany of the U. S. Department of Agriculture ; 
Prof. De Alton Saunders, of the University of South Dakota; and Mr. T. H. 
Kearney, of the New York Botanical Garden. Dr. B. E. Fernow, Dean of 
the College of Forestry, Cornell University, is also a member of the party. 
Mr. Saunders will give special attention to the marine alge, Mr. Coville and 
Mr. Kearney to the vascular plants, and Mr. Trelease to fungi. The expedi- 
tion left Chicago on May 25, and will return about August 1. 
THE PaciFic Coast LABoraTory at Santa Ana, California, established 
as a branch of the Division of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology of the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture, has accomplished within a few years a ~ 
large amount of valuable work. In 1889 Mr. Newton B. Pierce was 
appointed a special agent to investigate the California vine disease, and, as 
a result of the study then undertaken, preventive measures have been 
recommended and so far adopted as to render recurrence of the disease, 
with its former wholesale destructiveness, practically impossible. Subse- 
quently Phylloxera was discovered and stamped out in time to prevent its 
extensive spread, and investigations have for some time been in progress ~ 
that give good promise of equally important results in the production of 
varieties of grapes immune to attacks of coudure, a disease that annually 
causes a loss of half a million dollars to the vineyardists of the San Joaquin 
valley. A large series of different sprays for the treatment of peach curl 
were first tested here, and methods for its control were first introduced into 
the different peach growing states from this station. The laboratory has an 
excellent equipment, including bacteriological outfit, photographic apparatus, 
an extensive collection of photographs illustrative of plant diseases of the 
Coast region, and a good working library. It has gradually grown into a 
bureau of information and advice for horticultural commissioners and practical 
horticulturists of the whole Pacific Coast._-V. M. SPALDING. 
