178 
study of kelps, and the culture of these and 
other marine alge; while the increased con- 
sumption and rising price of coal has led to 
the reopening of at least one abandoned mine 
which has yielded fossil plants of great scien- 
tific interest in the past and will be closely 
watched by paleobotanists this summer. The 
recently recognized value of certain species of 
sphagnum moss (especially Sphagnum papil- 
losum and S. palustre) as a substitute for ab- 
sorbent cotton for use in surgical dressings 
has enabled the very few botanists who are fa- 
miliar with this rather difficult genus to render 
important service to the Red Cross by explor- 
ing the sphagnum resources of the country 
and by advising local Red Cross chapters in 
their efforts to locate new sources of supply. 
Undoubtedly the most striking effect of the 
great war on American botanists has been to 
direct their attention more generally than 
ever before to problems of plant pathology. 
The food situation, accompanied by the edu- 
cational campaign of the Food Administration 
and Department of Agriculture, directed pop- 
ular attention to the basic fact that humanity 
is, in the last analysis, directly dependent on 
green plants for food. Statements that we 
“must save wheat for our allies” lent new in- 
terest to the fact that stinking smut of wheat 
annually costs the United States twenty-two 
million bushels. Urgent advice that we must 
use perishable fruits and vegetables to save 
more concentrated foods for the armies in 
France called public attention sharply to the 
fact that fresh fruits and vegetables can not 
easily be shipped great distances, that they are 
in truth highly perishable; and finally to the 
tragic fact that large amounts are annually 
lost in transit and on the market. 
With this increased popular interest went a 
renewed realization on the part of botanists 
themselves of the fundamental importance of 
their work and of their own responsibility in 
such matters. They knew that stinking smut 
was preventable and the means of its preven- 
tion. They realized the immediate necessity, 
military necessity even, that it be prevented. 
With state and federal agencies calling atten- 
tion to the need for increased utilization of 
fruits and vegetables came the realization that 
SCIENCE 
[N. 8. Von. XLVIII. No, 1234 
five to ten per cent. of our eighty million dol- 
lar apple crop is destroyed by diseases the con- 
trol of which is well understood and aroused 
the determination that they should in fact be 
controlled. 
The case of losses which occur on the mar- 
ket was not so simple. The methods of control 
of plant diseases which cause losses of fruits 
and vegetables in transit have been worked out 
in a few instances, whereas about others very 
little is known. The obligation, however, was 
equally apparent, so far as methods of control 
were known they must be applied, where none 
were known they must be found. 
With such a task before them it is not sur- 
prising that American botanists have organized 
as never before and as a result this summer is 
seeing a campaign for the control of plant dis- 
eases never approached in this country. With 
this there is being carried on an increased 
amount of research on fundamental scientific 
questions of significance in the control of 
plant disease. 
This increased usefulness is being brought 
about by better organization of the men al- 
ready engaged in the work and by much out- 
side assistance from botanists who are not, 
professionally, plant pathologists. Both these 
changes would, indeed, have been necessary 
in order to keep up even the normal activities 
in plant pathology, for the number of workers 
in this line, as in all lines, has been reduced 
by the needs of the army and navy. The 
younger men and in particular the graduate 
students preparing for work in plant pathology 
have enlisted in large numbers. 
, The organization of American botanists for 
greater service in the study and control of 
plant diseases is under the immediate direc- 
tion of the War Board of American Patholo- 
gists, a representative committee appointed by 
the American Phytopathological Society, at its 
annual meeting, January, 1918. The work 
which this committee has already accomplished 
is too varied to be detailed. Three-phases of 
its activity will sufficiently illustrate the scope 
and methods of its work. These are the man 
power census, the extension work, and the 
assistance of research. 
A reorganization of man power, if much was 
