19 
sented, while the most abundant of the conifers are of the type of 
the Norfolk Island pine. Sago palms were also present. A 
species of Melumbo grew in the waters and passion vines clam- 
bered up the trees. Associated with these were other genera of 
more northern distribution. Several species of sassafras, syca- 
more, willow, andromeda, etc., and the ancestors of the tulip tree, 
of which our Leriodendron Tulipifera is the sole living descendant, 
— foreshadowing a transition to the cooler climatic conditions of 
today. 
ArTHUR HOLLIcK. 
NOTES, NEWS AND COMMENT. 
Dr. J. K. Small, head curator of the museums and herbarium, 
and Mr. J. J. Carter of Pleasant Grove, Pennsylvania, left for 
Nassau, Bahamas, January 10. They expect to spend about four 
weeks in botanical exploration of the unknown interior of the 
Andros Islands and thus complete the botanical survey of the 
ahamian pects 
Mr. Frank D. Kern, of Purdue University, has been granted a 
research ae in the Garden for one month to aid in his 
studies on the North American plant rusts, a group of small 
parasitic fungi, many species of which are injurious to cultivated 
plants. 
Dr. P. A. Rydberg, curator, visited Baltimore and Washington 
early in January to examine specimens of the Calo: Family 
which he is monographing for “ North American Flora 
Prof. W. C. Coker, of the University of North Carolina, spent 
several days at the Garden carrying on further investigations in 
the flora of the Carolinas. 
Mr. H. H. Bartlett, chemical biologist in the Bureau of Plant 
(Industry, Washington, D. C., visited the Garden on January 3, 
examining the collections of Disioven in regard to the confusion 
which has existed concerning the drug known as “ Wild Yam.” 
Dr. Mel T. Cook, of the Delaware Agricultural Experiment 
3tation, Newark, Delaware, spent two weeks at the Garden dur- 
