178 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1182 



by Mr. Bert Cunninghain, of the Durham, 

 ]Sr. C, city schools, began an investigation of 

 the plankton collections made by the U. S. 

 Fisheries steamer Fish Hawh in the Chesa- 

 peake Bay region. Some thirty-odd collec- 

 tions were examined by the employment of 

 methods which it is believed will furnish fairly 

 accurate data concerning the numerical rela- 

 tions of all the important species as they vary 

 according to depth, season and locality. 



Dr. L. F. Shackell, of the University of 

 Utah, continued his studies on the toxicities 

 of various constituents of coal-tar creosote for 

 the marine wood borer, Limnoria. Among the 

 preparations tested were composite samples of 

 tar bases of different boiling points, obtained 

 through the courtesy of Mr. S. E. Church, of 

 the Barrett Manufacturing Company. It was 

 found that the bases were highly toxic for 

 Limnoria; and that the toxicity increased with 

 the rise of the boiling point — paralleling in 

 this respect the results previously obtained for 

 the tar acids. 



Professor H. V. Wilson, of the University 

 of North Carolina, spent a short time at the 

 laboratory, continuing the study and identifi- 

 cation of the " Albatross-Philippine Sponge 

 Collection." Since but little work had pre- 

 viously been done on the sponges of the far 

 east, it is not surprising that many of the 

 forms proved to be undescribed. 



Mrs. E. Bennet Decker, of "Washington, D. 

 C, again served as station artist. She pre- 

 pared a mmiber of illustrations of diatoms 

 for Dr. "Wolfe and made drawings and sketches 

 for Dr. Kuntz and for the director. 



Samuel F. Hildebrand, 



Director 



Bureau of Fisheries, 

 Washington, D. C. 



PHILIPPE DE VILMORIN 



With the death of Philippe Leveque de 

 Vilmorin on Jime 30, genetics and horticul- 

 ture lost a remarkable friend. His published 

 work in both fields is valuable, but perhaps 

 surpassed by his personal influence, which he 

 owed largely to his position as head of the 



large and wealthy de "Viknorin family, and of 

 the firm of "Vilmorin, Andrieux & Co., of 

 Paris, one of the most celebrated seed-growing 

 and seed-selling establishments in the world. 



The firm first appears in 1727 as a little 

 seed store " Aucoque de la honne foy " on the 

 bank of the Seine, kept by one Pierre Geoff- 

 rey, whose daughter and heiress married the 

 botanist Pierre d' Andrieux. A young botan- 

 ist from Lorraine, Philippe- Victoire Leveque 

 de Vilmorin, formed an intimacy with An- 

 drieux, and in 1774 married his only daughter. 

 Since then the firm has borne the name of the 

 two families, although controlled wholly by 

 the de Vilmorins. It has been handed on from 

 father to son, and many of the family have 

 contributed to agricultural science. The best 

 known is Louis de Vilmorin (1816—1869), 

 whose name is always connected with the sugar 

 beet. 



Of the early French contributors to genetics 

 some, like Victor Lemoine, are known only as 

 practical hybridizers; others have done purely 

 theoretical work, as Jordan with his study 

 of the nature of species, and Naudin with his 

 observations on the segregation of characters 

 in hybrids. Louis de Vilmorin is conspicuous 

 in both classes. To theory he contributed 

 the centgener method of breeding; to prac- 

 tical agriculture he contributed the sugar 

 beet, whose saccharine content he raised from 

 10 per cent, to 18 per cent, by a carefully 

 planned series of selections. Little improve- 

 ment has been made in this beet since it left 

 his farm. 



He was succeeded by his son Henri, as head 

 of the business and the family, and Philippe, 

 who has just died, succeeded Henri in 1899. 

 Philippe turned over the active management 

 of the family business to his brother-in law, 

 Comte d'Etienne, and gave the greater part 

 of his own time to scientific research. 



In horticulture he published studies of the 

 beet-sugar industry of the United States, the 

 culture of ginseng in Korea and Manchuria, 

 and the tobaccos of commerce. He likewise 

 edited three important publications of the 

 firm : Les Fleurs de Pleine Terre, Le Manuel 

 de Floriculture, and the Hortus Vilmorin- 



