612 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 746 



municipality and a state organization for this 

 purpose was effected. The following objects 

 and plans were considered: 



1. To circulate information through publica- 

 tions originating with the organization and 

 wherever procurable. These should discuss topics 

 upon which the people want information, the 

 kinds and uses of ornamental plants, insect ene- 

 mies, the arrangement of the farm and suburban 

 home, the practical problems of street, play 

 ground, park and cemetery development, the cus- 

 tomary methods of improvement organizations and 

 kindred subjects. 



2. To promote, where requested, the formation 

 of village, municipal and neighborhood improve- 

 ment and similar societies, park boards and park- 

 way associations and to assist them within its 

 field. 



3. To advise upon the instruction of landscape 

 gardening and ornamental horticulture, both pro- 

 fessional and elemental in the University of Illi- 

 nois and to assist in similar courses given else- 

 where in the state. 



4. To contribute lectures upon the subject 

 throughout the state when requested. 



5. To advise upon experiments in the hardiness 

 and usefulness of ornamental plants in the dif- 

 ferent latitudes of the state and to encourage the 

 creation in some form of small public plant gar- 

 dens where the ornamental use of trees, shrubs 

 and flowers can be readily studied. 



6. To frame and secure necessary legislation 

 which shall promote out-of-door art. 



A COLLECTION of British birds' eggs has been 

 presented to the Natural History Museum of 

 Aberdeen University by Mr. E. Hay Fenton, 

 London, a native of Aberdeen. The collection 

 contains specimens of practically every British 

 bird, and Lacludes an egg of the great auk. 

 It numbers upwards of 7,000 specimens. 



The American Museum of Natural History 

 has recently acquired, through purchase from 

 Mr. G. E. Cassedy, of Canon City, Colo., an 

 iron meteorite that wiU form a valuable addi- 

 tion to the series of meteorites in the foyer of 

 the museum. The specimen, which weighs 

 682 pounds, was found November 11, 1907, in 

 Fremont County, Colorado. 



Professor W. M. Davis, of Harvard Uni- 

 versity, read a paper on March 22, before the 

 Eoyal Geographical Society, London, on " The 

 Colorado Canyon." At the meeting of the so- 



ciety on April 5, Sir Harry Johnston gave a 

 lecture on the scenery of Cuba, Haiti and 

 Jamaica, with illustrations from photographs 

 taken by him. 



We learn from the London Times that the 

 members of the committee of the ill-fated 

 Danmark Arctic expedition have raised a sum 

 of £1,250, which, if the government wiU pro- 

 vide a similar amount, will be sufficient to 

 despatch a small motor-yacht expedition to 

 northeastern Greenland to search for the 

 diaries and sketches probably left at Danmark 

 Firth by M. Mylius Erichsen, the leader of 

 the Danmark expedition, and his companions 

 MM. Bronlund and Hagen, who perished in 

 an attempt to cross the inland ice in winter. 

 The plan was set on foot by the well-known 

 Arctic explorer Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen, who 

 will be the leader of the new expedition, which, 

 according to the intentions of the committee, 

 will consist of seven persons, and wiU start 

 from Copenhagen about June 15, 1909, re- 

 turning in the autumn of 1910. 



We learn from the London Times that the 

 British Ornithologists' Union has decided to 

 undertake a zoological exploration of the in- 

 terior of Dutch New Guinea. Dr. Lorentz, 

 who is once more on his passage out to New 

 Guinea, has been recently up the Noord Eiver, 

 and mapped some of the ranges lying south 

 of the Charles Louis Mountains, but his aims 

 were geographical rather than zoological. The 

 direct objective of the new expedition will be 

 the Charles Louis Mountains, a snow-capped 

 range forming part of the great central system 

 stretching across the island from east to west. 

 These are the Snow Mountains of the Dutch, 

 and the highest peak is given on the most re- 

 cent map as 17,000 feet. It is proposed that 

 the expedition shall leave England about 

 June, and every endeavor will be made to pro- 

 vide for a clear year's work. Mr. Walter 

 Goodfellow, whose name is known from his 

 collecting journeys in New Guinea, will be ia 

 command of the expedition, and his assistants, 

 Mr. Stalker and Mr. WoUaston, have had 

 some previous experience in the island. To 

 these it is intended to add two specially-se- 

 lected men, so that all branches of zoology 

 and botany, and also of geography, may be 



