June 25, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



1003 



W. W. Bobbins and G. S. Dodds, and " Dis- 

 tribution of Deciduous Trees and Shrubs on 

 the Mesas," by W. W. Eobbins) ; and " Bibli- 

 ography and History of Colorado Botany," by 

 Edith M. Allison. Under the last title several 

 hundred papers are enumerated bearing more 

 or less upon Colorado botany. 



Somewhat out of the ordinary is Professor 

 De Loach's bulletin entitled " The Mendelian 

 and De Vriesian Laws Applied to Cotton 

 Breeding " (Bull. 83, Georgia Experiment 

 Station). It is a plea for the application of 

 scientific principles to the breeding of the 

 cotton plant, with illustrations from his own 

 work, and will repay careful reading. 



The Eeport of the State Forester of "Wis- 

 consin for 190Y and 1908 contains much inter- 

 esting, and some encouraging matter for the 

 lover of forests. Especially pleasing is the 

 " half-tone " frontispiece which shows a thrifty 

 growth of young pines which if protected will 

 eventually restock the land with a forest cov- 

 ering. 



Not strictly botanical, but worthy of exam- 

 ination, is the Second Biennial Report of the 

 Wyoming State Board of Horticulture, of 

 which the well-known botanist. Professor Aven 

 Nelson, is the secretary. The eastern reader 

 will be astonished at the photographs of fine 

 trees and fruits grown in this new mountain 

 state. 



RECENT SYSTEMATIC PAPERS 



Another local manual of botany has ap- 

 peared, this time in a region where such a 

 thing is much needed. Professor J. E. Wat- 

 son, of the University of New Mexico, has 

 issued as one of the bulletins of the university 

 (No. 49) a pamphlet of a little more than a 

 hundred pages consisting of a " Manual of the 

 More Common Flowering Plants Growing 

 without Cultivation in Bernalillo County, 

 New Mexico." In his preface the author says 

 that it " has grown out of the need of a key 

 to the local plants to place in the hands of his 

 students. None of the manuals published 

 cover this region satisfactorily." Thus find- 

 ing no systematic manual, he very properly 

 went to work and made one. That is the 

 right spirit for the teacher, and Professor 



Watson is to be commended for undertaking 

 the work. And we say this in spite of the 

 poor printing and the numerous typographical 

 errors in the pamphlet. One who has had no 

 experience with the small printing establish- 

 ments to be found away from the large cities 

 has no conception of the impossibility of fault- 

 less typography under such circumstances. 

 So we overlook the form of the little manual, 

 and see in it a worthy effort of the author to 

 supply a usable book for his pupils. We 

 should like to see more teachers willing to 

 incur the labor necessary to provide as useful 

 a book as this. 



H. Leveille's " Monographie du Genre Ono- 

 thera," begun some years ago, has reached its 

 third part and includes species from No. 38 

 to 54, i. e., those of the " groups " Godetia, 

 Clarkia and Boisduvalia. 



Eeeent numbers of the " Leaflets of Philip- 

 pine Botany" issued at irregular intervals by 

 A. D. E. Elmer, of Manila, include articles 

 23 (November 23, 1908) to 29 (February 15, 

 1909). The titles are "Synopsis of Rubus" 

 (classifying and describing the sixteen species 

 and one variety which occur on the island), 

 " Threescore of New Plants," " The Genus 

 Itea " (containing two Philippine species), 

 " A Fascicle of South Negros Figs " (34 spe- 

 cies, of which 5 are new), " GesneraceEe from 

 the Cuernos Mountains," " New Philippine 

 Zingiberacese " and " A Score of New Plants." 

 These " leaflets " constitute an interesting 

 little journal of systematic botany. 



A NEW LAKESniE LABORATORY 



A very pretty prospectus announces the es- 

 tablishment of the "Lakeside Laboratory" of 

 the State University of Iowa at Okoboji, Iowa, 

 by the alumni of that institution. The loca- 

 tion is on a bay on the westerly side of Oko- 

 bo]i Lake, in the extreme northern part of 

 central Iowa, at the highest elevation above 

 the sea of any place in the state. The session 

 covers ten weeks, divided into two terms, the 

 first from June 21 to July 31, and the second 

 from August 2 to August 28. In botany three 

 courses are offered in the first term, namely: 

 (1) mycology, by Professor Macbride; (2) 



