OPEN LETTERS. 
BROMUS SECALINUS GERMINATING ON ICE. 
To the Editors of the Botanical Gazette ,;—In the summer of 1895, G. H. 
True brought into the botanical laboratory some cakes of ice taken from the 
margin or top of the mass in the ice house, where the straw came in contact 
with them. Among the rubbish were a considerable number of grains of 
oats, chess, and perhaps seeds of other plants. Right in contact with the ice 
were kernels of chess with plumules half to three-fourths of an inch long and 
roots, some of which were very nearly two inches long. Numerous roots of 
chess in their growth had penetrated the clear ice for most of their length by 
thawing small holes with a diameter about three times that of the roots. 
Some of the roots curved more or less, but were easily removed.—W. J. BEAL, 
Agricultural College, Mich. 
THE METRIC SYSTEM AND THE “ILLUSTRATED FLORA.” 
To the Editors of the Botanical Gazette :— Referring to your editorial in 
the February GAZETTE concerning the use of the metric system, in which 
you express your regret that it was not taken up in ///ustrated Flora, \ sub- 
mit the following extracts from correspondence which will indicate our posi- 
tion in the matter. 
Regents Office, Albany, N. Y., Feb. 18, 1897 
Dear Mecucances Britton : 
e enclosed seems to me a just criticism, unless you have some 
ial reason ipa sticking by the old measure, instead of using the metric 
I admire so much your book that I was sorry to see you using the 
measures. og Yours very truly, 
MELVIL DEWEY. 
New York City, Feb. 23, 1897 
‘Dear be : 
r. Britton has enclosed to me your favor of the 18th inst., with 
| Peohewes Bessey notes from the Naturalist on the metric system, and the 
omission of of the ///ustrated Flora to adopt it. 
No doubt you are both quite right, looking at the subject from a scientific 
point of view alone. But the eta while intended t o be as At soil pos- 
sible within the pes limit b f, to the 
eneral pul 
