822 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 751 



collecting apparatus, etc., are supplied. Pro- 

 fessor D. S. Johnson, of Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity, Baltimore, Md., is in general charge 

 of the botanical instruction. 



The tenth session of the Harpswell Labora- 

 tory at South Harpswell, Maine (sixteen 

 miles from Portland), will be held June 14 

 to September 11. The laboratory is intended 

 for research students only, and for their ac- 

 commodation has one building affording 

 facilities for fifteen persons. A motor launch, 

 small boats, nets and dredges are provided 

 for collecting, while in the laboratories are 

 glassware, aquaria, microscopes, microtomes, 

 etc., for the work of investigations. Professor 

 J. S. Kingsley, of Tufts College, Mass., is in 

 general charge of the laboratory. 



The Minnesota Seaside Station at Port 

 Eenfrew, on the west coast of Vancouver Is- 

 land, will resume its sessions this year, after 

 a vacation of a year. There are two labora- 

 tory buildings, and one dormitory and mess 

 hall, for the use of students. The large 

 brown seaweeds are more than usually abun- 

 dant along the coast near the station, while 

 the forests of this part of the island are 

 wholly unbroken. The session begins about 

 July 6 and ends about the middle of August. 

 Professor Josephine E. Tilden, of the Univer- 

 sity of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., is in 

 general charge of this station. 



The first session of the Marine Biological 

 Laboratory of the Washington State College 

 will be held at Olga, on Oreas Island, in the 

 northerly part of Puget Sound, beginning 

 June 21 and continuing to July 30. The im- 

 mediate surroundings include the open waters 

 of the sound with their rich marine flora, the 

 tide flats, open land, forests, nearby fresh- 

 water lakes, Mt. Constitution (2,400 ft. alt.) 

 with ravines, waterfalls, swamps, etc. A motor 

 launch, row boats, dredges, collecting appa- 

 ratus, microscopes, etc., are supplied. In- 

 struction and opportunities for investigation 

 are offered in botany and zoology. Professor 

 R. K. Beattie, State College, Pullman, Wash., 

 is in general charge of this station. 



Allied to the foregoing is the Mountain 

 Laboratory of the University of Colorado, 

 whose first session will be held (June 14 to 



July 24) at Tolland^ Colorado, in a mountain 

 park at an altitude of nearly nine thousand 

 feet altitude above sea-level. This point is 

 eighteen miles southwest of Boulder, and is in 

 the midst of hills, mountains, moraines» 

 ravines, brooks, mountain meadows and ponds. 

 The rich forest vegetation of the near-by 

 region, and the " timber line " and alpin© 

 vegetation within easy reach, afford many in- 

 teresting ecological problems. Courses in 

 general biology, nature study, plant ecology, 

 anatomy and taxonomy are offered, and op- 

 portunities are given for individual work and 

 investigation. Professor Francis Ramaley, of 

 Boulder, Colo., is in general charge of the 

 laboratory. 



SOME SOUTH AFRICAN BOTANY 



From far-away South Africa comes a hand- 

 ful of papers by Professor Joseph Burtt- 

 Davey, the agrostologist and botanist for the 

 Transvaal Department of Agriculture. Quite 

 naturally these papers have a strong agricul- 

 tural bias, yet in all of them the scientific 

 botanist may find much that will throw light 

 upon the native vegetation of the region. 

 One of the most interesting of these papers is 

 that on the " Native Trees of the Transvaal " 

 (1907), in which 269 spiecies, representing 57 

 families, are recorded, and the additions made 

 during the following year and reported in 

 another paper, bring these numbers up to 336 

 species and 58 families. These are distributed 

 through four well-marked zones, viz : (1) 

 " The Mist-belt Forest " on the upper eastern 

 slopes of the Drakensberg mountains, where 

 the rainfall is heavy and the atmosphere 

 humid. " A characteristic feature is the 

 evergreen character of the trees, the common 

 occurrence of epiphytes, lianes and ferns " : — 



(2) " The High veld zone," consisting of a 

 typical grass-steppe region, in which trees are 

 rare. It descends to about 4,000 feet altitude : 



(3) " The Middle veld zone," known also as 

 the "Bush veld," and for the most part 

 loosely covered with trees so as to constitute 

 a " Savannah " region rather than a real for- 

 est : (4) " The Low veld zone," restricted to 

 the country lying below 1,500 feet altitude, 

 and also a " Savannah " region. 



