141 
Mr. Guy West Wilson, a student at the Garden and a museum 
aid in 1906-07 and a research scholar in 1913, has been appointed 
a Special Agent of the United States Department of Agriculture 
for the study of the chestnut bark disease, with work assigned 
at the New fae Agricultural Experiment Station at New 
Brunswick. r. Wilson has recently been assistant in een 
pathology at . North Carolina Experiment Statio 
An invitation was received by the Garden to participate in 
the bicentenary celebration of the foundation of the Imperial 
Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg, Russia, held in June, 1913. 
It was not possible to accept the invitation, but a congratulatory 
letter was written. This important institution has had an un- 
interrupted history since 1713, and has contributed greatly to 
the knowledge of plants of the Russian Empire and to the 
development of its natural resources. The New York Botanical 
Garden has had exchange arrangements with the St. Petersburg 
institution and our herbarium contains many specimens received 
in this way. We have also had several consignments of seeds, 
from which many plants have been grown. 
The present summer drought is detrimental to newly estab- 
lished plantations and, although free use of hoses is being made, 
more or less loss of plants is apparently unavoidable. It is very 
interesting to observe how much more effective a shower is in 
reviving vegetation during a drought period than the water from 
hose-taps. This is, of course, known to every gardener, but 
ncraee saturated by hosing as by atmospheric water. It 
would s though there must be some physical property 
of rain water baci stimulates vegetation in a way which water 
from ae does n 
other ete the weather has been exceedingly favorable 
for a and a large crop of hay has been secured and stacked, 
cut from parts of the arboretum grounds on the east side of the 
Bronx River and from the north meadows. Moré hay, indeed, 
has been secured than can be used to feed Garden horses during 
the next year. 
