184 
meeting of the Vermont Botanical Club, in which the Vermont 
Bird Club codperated, was a very successful and enjoyable occa- 
sion, and was made so, largely by the hospitality of Professor 
and Mrs. Frederic S. Lee, and Miss Elizabeth Billings. Many 
interesting plants were observed. About fifty persons attended. 
Prof. David R. Sumstine, of the Pittsburgh High School, has 
been awarded a scholarship at the Garden for the month of July. 
Mr. Sumstine is engaged in a systematic study of certain groups 
of the lower fungi. 
Dr. William J. Gies, consulting chemist of the New York 
Botanical Garden, will conduct investigations of various species 
of poisonous fungi during the coming year. 
Leaf-blight of the plane-tree (Gleosporium’ nervisequum) was 
very conspicuous this season on the grounds of the Garden from 
the middle of May to the end of June, the continued rainy 
weather being especially favorable to the development of the 
fungus. This severe attack, following so closely the epidemics of 
1907 and 1908, will undoubtedly kill or severely injure many of 
the smaller branches of the plane-trees in this region. 
Mr. H.S. Jackson, research scholar at the Garden in 1907, has 
been appointed professor of botany and plant pathology in the 
Oregon Agricultural College. Mr. Jackson has been, since 
August, 1909, research assistant in plant pathology in the Oregon 
Agricultural Experiment Station. 
Bulletin 118 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States 
Department of Agriculture, contains the results of four years of 
research in ‘Culture Studies oo Penicillium” by Dr. Charles 
Thom, mycologist in ch Twenty-seven species 
and three varieties are descabed a in this paper. In addition to 
the morphological characters, the physiological effects upon 
nutrient media have been found to be reliable characters in 
separating some species and in such cases are introduced into 
the diagnosis of the species. The work is illustrated by thirty- 
six figures. 
Mr. Harlan H. York, of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 
recently visited the Garden on his return from Jamaica, West 
