a similar paper is about to be published dealing with the effects 
of steam heat on soils, and the results are similar to ours in every 
respect, although we used dry heat in all cases. This would 
indicate that either dry or steam heat produces very deep- 
seated changes in soils, and that the sterilization of soils has 
other effects equally as important for the growth of plants as is 
the destruction of bacteria and fungi. In the course of this work 
_ we have come upon many interesting facts and it is our intention 
to carry this investigation still further with special regard to the 
effects of heated-soil extracts upon the green plants; the fungus 
Pyronema having served us well as an indicator of the changes 
produced in soils by heat. 
FRED J. SEAVER. 
NOTES, NEWS AND COMMENT. 
Mr. J. B. Norton, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, Washing- 
ton, D. C., spent a day at the Garden last month studying the 
herbarium collection of Asparagus. 
Dr. E. J. Durand, instructor in botany at Cornell University, 
has been appointed assistant professor of botany in the University 
of Missouri. 
Professor G. F. Atkinson, of Cornell University, visited the 
Garden April 21, to consult some of the older mycological litera- 
ture. 
Dr. George G. Hedgcock, of the National Timber and Forest 
Disease Survey, spent ten days at the Garden in April, consulting 
the collection of timber-destroying fungi. 
The chair of botany at the University of Vermont has been 
filled by Dr. George P. Burns, of the University of Michigan. 
Dr. Perley Spaulding, of the Division of Forest Pathology at 
Washington, made the Garden a brief visit in April to examine 
the collection of plant rusts. 
r. Frank Dunn Kern, associate botanist of the Agricultural 
Experiment Station at Lafayette, Indiana, has been appointe 
fellow in botany at Columbia University for the ensuing collegiate 
year. 
