82 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1308 



WILLIAM GILSON FARLOWi 



The Botanical Society of America records 

 its appreciation of the great loss sustained 

 by the society, by American science, and by 

 botanical science througbout the world, in 

 the death of Professor William Gilson 

 Farlow. 



Educated as a physician, he yielded readily 

 to Asa Gray's suggestion that he broaden 

 the scope of botany at Harvard University by 

 developing there an interest in flowerless 

 plants, which up to that time had scarcely 

 appeared above the horizon of professional 

 botanists in America. In preparation for 

 this he traveled extensively in northern Eu- 

 rope, at a time when extended travel was un- 

 common, meeting and forming personal rela- 

 tions with the leading authorities on cryp- 

 togams; and he had the very unusual priv- 

 ilege of working in De Bary's laboratory at 

 Strasbourg, where he associated intimately 

 with other young men who were to continue 

 the work of this great leader after his own 

 untimely death. 



!N"ever overburdened by large numbers of 

 half-interested students. Dr. Farlow com- 

 municated his own enthusiasm and indus- 

 trious habits through long years to a limited 

 niunber of men who have been counted for a 

 generation among the leaders in American 

 botany, and particularly in that branch of the 

 science which De Bary's classical studies of 

 fungous parasitism laid as the foundation on 

 which the art of phytopathology has been 

 reared of late, particularly in America, with 

 much success and economic benefit. 



Though familiar with ferns, and especially 

 with the marine algs of New England, of 

 which he published an early monograph. Pro- 

 fessor Parlow's interest always centered in 

 the fungi, and the larger number of his pub- 

 lications have dealt with these plants. 



He served his science particularly weU in 

 securing for permanent reference preservation 

 the historic herbarium of Curtiss, one of the 

 pioneers in American mycology, and that of 

 Tuckerman, long the authority on American 



1 Memorial adopted by the Botanical Society of 

 America. 



lichens; and since the death of Asa Gray, in 

 1887, he has been recognized at home and 

 abroad as the foremost of American botanists. 



Among his unpublished manuscripts is the 

 completion of a compendious Bibliographic 

 Index of North American Eungi, one volunae 

 of which was printed in 1905, and of which 

 the remainder should be brought to publica- 

 tion promptly now that his work on it is done. 



A keen critic, an encouraging teacher, a 

 kindly and sympathetic friend, and a man of 

 the broadest international interest, Professor 

 Earlow is mourned by all who knew him. 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



RESEARCH ON RUBBER CULTIVATION 



A COEEESPONDENT writes from Sumatra: 



During the last week of August and the first 

 week of September, 1919, Dr. J. J. van Hall, di- 

 rector of the Laboratory of Plant Diseases in 

 Buitenzorg, Java, and Dr. E. D. Rands, botanist in 

 the same la;boraitory ; specially engaged on a study 

 of the brown bast disease of the Hevea rubber, 

 made a journey to Sumatra to study conditions 

 there. 



On September 2, 1919, a conference on brown 

 bast disease was held at the A. V. R. O. S. (Alge- 

 meene-proefstation voor Rubber-Cultur, Ooat-kust 

 van Sumatra) Proefstation. This was attended by 

 Acting Director F. C. van Heurn, of the A. V. R. 

 O. S. Mr. J. C. Maas, and Dr. H. Heuser, also of 

 the A. V. R. O. S., Dr. J. J. van Hall and Dr. 

 R. D. Rands, both of the Laboratory of Plant Dis- 

 ease, Mr. Oarl D. La Rue and Mr. P. E. Keuche- 

 nlus, botanist and mycologist respectively, of the 

 Holland-American Plantations Company, and Dr. 

 J. 6. Polj director of the experiment station of the 

 Oultur Maatschappij Amsterdam. 



The cause of the disease was first discussed, Dr. 

 Rands giving recent evidence secured by him 

 pointing to a physiological origin. Mr. Carl D. La 

 Rue stated that results obtained by Professor H. 

 H. Bartlett and himself in. 1918, and later by him- 

 self alone, indicated that the same bacterium was 

 always present in bark affected with brown bark 

 disease. Mr. Keuehenius stated that he also found 

 bacteria to be constantly present in diseased tissue, 

 and that he had secured positive results from inoc- 

 ulations with these bacteria. 



Conditions favorable to attack by the disease 

 were also discussed as well as methods of treat- 



