October 16, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



525 



tophyte of Anthoceros. In the second part of 

 his paper he shows that the prothallium of 

 Gleichenia is more or less lobed, and has a 

 massive midrib. The antheridia usually de- 

 velop first " but continue to form after the 

 arehegonia are mature." 



In a still later paper, " Symbiosis in Fern 

 Prothallia " {American Naturalist, March, 

 1908), the same author discusses the signifi- 

 cance of the presence in many gametophytes 

 of archegoniates of fungal endophytes. He 

 finds that " an endophytic fungus is normally 

 present in the green prothallia of several 

 Marattiaceae, Osmundaceae and Gleichen- 

 iaceae." 



MISCELLANEOUS BOTANICAL PAPERS 



The successive numbers of the Fern Bulletin 

 show that it is another of the botanical jour- 

 nals that from small and humble begimiings 

 has grown to be one of the periodicals that 

 every botanist must have. The editor has 

 certainly succeeded in making it a readable 

 and helpful journal for all who are interested 

 in ferns. It will be especially helpful to 

 every young botanist. 



With the September number, the journal 

 long known as Forestry and Irrigation 

 changes its name to Conservation. Under the 

 old title many of its articles were of much 

 interest to all botanists excepting perhaps 

 some of the narrower specialists, and the 

 editorial indications are that under its new 

 title this botanical interest will be measurably 

 increased. The ecologist will find much of 

 his kind of botany in it now. 



Somewhat allied to the foregoing is Mr. 

 Brown's " Arboriculture," in which the editor 

 gives his ideas about trees and tree-growing in 

 simple, non-technical language, helped out by 

 excellent reproductions of illustrative photo- 

 graphs. The writer of these notes classes this 

 among his valued botanical periodicals. 



A new journal. Southern Woodlands, pub- 

 lished by the Georgia Forest Association, has 

 confessedly a narrower field than the two 

 journals just mentioned. However, in the 

 August number E. M. Harper's article on 

 " Some Neglected Aspects of the Campaign 

 against Swamps " wiU be read by botanists 



with pleasure, since it calls attention to the 

 fact that the drainage of swamps is by no 

 means always to be commended; to which 

 every botanist will say " amen." 



In line with Mr. Harper's paper is one by 

 Professor Herbert Osborn, entitled " Needed : 

 A System of Aquatic Farming," in the 

 Popular Science Monthly for July, suggesting 

 a possible increased usefulness of swamps as 

 swamps, by proper treatment without draining 

 them. 



That there is no danger of an immediate 

 exhaustion of problems in the field botany of 

 the higher plants in the vicinity of New York 

 City, is well set forth in a paper on the sub- 

 ject in the July number of Torreya. It is 

 worth careful reading by all field botanists. 



Incidentally the same author suggests an 

 interesting line of work in his paper on 

 " Some Native Weeds and their Probable 

 Origin " in a recent number of the Torrey 

 Bulletin. 



Professor Headden, chemist of the Colorado 

 Experiment Station, in Bulletin 131 concludes 

 that the continued use of arsenical sprays is 

 the cause of the "black heart" and certain 

 forms of " root rot " of fruit trees. 



RECENT PAPERS ON FUNGI 



Professor Atkinson, in a paper on " The 

 Identity of Polyporus ' applanatus ' of Europe 

 and North America " in Anrmles Mycologici, 

 shows that the Boletus applanatus of Persoon 

 (1799) was antedated by Boletus lipsiensis of 

 Batsch (1786). Other specific names, as 

 megaloma (Lev. 1846), and leucophaeus 

 (Mont. 1856), are shown to be synonyms. 

 Finally he shows that Karsen's genus Gano- 

 derma probably should include this very com- 

 mon large bracket fungus, so that its name 

 should be Ganoderma lipsiensis (Batsch) 

 Atkinson. 



Doctor Clinton's Eeport of the Station 

 Botanist of the Connecticut Experiment Sta- 

 tion for the year 1907 contains notes on 

 fungous diseases for the year, a paper on the 

 root-rot of tobacco, and a longer one on cer- 

 tain heteroecious rusts. The report is excel- 

 lently illustrated. 



