201 
the sun is shining, rainbows come and go. To the right is the 
little observatory, just on the brink of the fall, from which we 
have looked out upon the waters as they plunged below. Further 
on we see the hazy distance of the other shore, and still beyond 
the mist rising from the upper fall to the railway viaduct above. 
This is the view which Mr. Letchworth has looked upon for 
many years and of which he is very fond. 
GeEorGE V. Nasu, 
Flead Gardener. 
NOTES, NEWS AND COMMENT. 
Dr. N. L. Britton spent November 18 and 19 in Washington 
and Baltimore examining collections of cacti, and in attending a 
meeting of the Committee on Policy of the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science. 
Dr. W. A. Murrill visited Harvard University November 7 to 
examine he of certain Boletaceae in the Farlow collection. 
The autumn course of lectures to the 4 B and 5 B pupils of the 
public ae of Bronx closed November 10. No postpone- 
ments on account of rain were necessary during the entire course, 
and on only one occasion was the attendance materially reduced 
by threatening weather. 
An interesting and unique celebration will be held on the estate 
of Mr. George W. Vanderbilt at Biltmore, North Carolina, dur- 
ing the Thanksgiving holidays, commemorating the twentieth 
anniversary of the beginning of practical forestry at Biltmore and 
the tenth anniversary of the Biltmore Forest School. 
The regular autumn course of public lectures delivered in the 
large hall of the museum building on Saturday afternoons closed 
November 21 with Dr. H. H. Rusby’s lecture on “ The Rubber 
Plants of Mexico.’’ These lectures have been well attended. 
The first botanical convention of the present collegiate year 
was held in the library on the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov- 
ember 4. Mrs, N. L. Britton gave an account of her recent 
collections in Jamaica ; Mr. E. W. Humphreys described an inter- 
