438 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1401 



The underlying idea of the work is to sup- 

 ply data on the history of edible plants 

 whether accounted of little or much value, and 

 especially regarding their early uses in all 

 parts of the world by primitive peoples and 

 others, and to trace their introduction into cul- 

 tivation, and their expansion into varieties as 

 known at the present time. In these respects 

 he has greatly added to the knowledge avail- 

 able in DeCandoUe's "Origin of Cultivated 

 Plants," Pickering's " Chronological History of 

 Plants," and other standard works on the his- 

 tory of esculents. 



The wealth of material brought together may 

 to some extent be judged from the fact that 

 DeCandoUe's work, generally considered the 

 best available on the history of cultivated 

 plants, treats scarcely of 250 kinds, while the 

 present work embraces nearly 3,000 kiads. The 

 work is, moreover, only the choicest part of a 

 vast storehouse of information secured by Dr. 

 Sturtevant, which he would undoubtedly have 

 elaborated into a still more extensive work, had 

 it not been for his premature death. The ex- 

 tent of the research involved, a specially valu- 

 able portion being the knowledge obtained from 

 rare and obscure writings, can be inferred from 

 there being upwards of 6,000 citations, refer- 

 ring to some 500 publications. 



But the work is not simply that of a biblio- 

 phagist and collector of data, for Dr. Sturte- 

 vant was a life-long student of constancy and 

 variation in both plants and animals. As joint 

 proprietor with his brothers of Waushakum 

 Farm and Director of the New York Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station he possessed great 

 opportunities for direct observations, which his 

 keen and richly endowed mind combined with 

 energy and initiative utilized to fullest degree. 

 This practical knowledge has insured the omis- 

 sion of improbable travellers' tales and fanci- 

 ful myths, and made the entries as scientifi- 

 cally historical and accurate as is possible. 



Large credit must be given for preparing 

 and issuing this volume to the broad-visioned 

 director of the station at Geneva, Dr. W. H. 

 Jordan, who authorized its preparation, and to 

 the editor. Dr. U. P. Hedrick, who has shown 



in the arrangement of its contents a fine knowl- 

 edge of the subject, rich scholarship and un- 

 flagging zeal. It was necessary for Dr. Hed- 

 rick to select the material from a vast amount 

 of manuscripts, notes, and card catalogue items 

 that had lain in the station library for twenty 

 years, and to verify and complete the long list 

 of citations. He has also supplied a very full 

 and sympathetic account of Dr. Sturtevant's 

 scientific career. The writer of this notice was 

 associated with Dr. Sturtevant during the 

 larger part of his directorship, and can there- 

 fore more fully realize the extent and value of 

 the original material and of the labor ex- 

 pended upon it by the editor. 



J. C. Arthur 

 Purdue IjNrvERSiTT, 

 Lafayette, Indiana 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



THE DISPLACEMENT METHOD FOR OBTAINING 

 THE SOIL SOLUTION i 



There have been several methods proposed 

 for obtaining the soil solution. Among the 

 most promising of the methods are those 

 which depend upon the principle of the dis- 

 placement of the soil solution by another 

 liquid. Schloesing^ was probably the first 

 to use the displacement method, using water 

 as the displacing liquid. Istcherekov^ used 

 ethyl alcohol as the displacing liquid and 

 obtained results indicating that the true soil 

 solution was secured. Morgan* has modified 

 the displacement method, using a heavy oil 

 as the displacing liquid and applying pressure 

 to force the oil into the packed soil. 



The present investigation was suggested by 

 the work of Istcherekov, and the procedure 

 followed was essentially the same as used by 

 that investigator. Several displacing liquids 

 were tried, including those miscible and non- 

 miscible with water. The most satisfactory 

 results were secured by use of ethyl alcohol. 



The method consists of packing the moist 



1 Published with the permission of the Director 

 of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station. 



2 Compt. Send. Acad Sei. Paris, 63, 1007 (1866). 

 ijour. Exp. Landw. (Russia), 8 (1907). 

 <Mioh. Agr. Exp. Sta. Tech. Bui. 28 (1916). 



