193 
Dr. W. A. Murrill, Assistant Director, visited Mountain Lake, 
Virginia, in July and obtained nearly a thousand specimens of 
eee mostly large fleshy species. This region is moist and 
avily wooded, the iene being over four thousand feet, and 
its fungus flora has been up to this time practically unknown, 
although by inference closely related to that of the high moun- 
tains of West Virginia and North Carolina. 
Tropical Life announces a prize of fifty pounds sterling for a 
essay embodying research work directed towards seein 
exactly what changes (together with their causes and whether 
these changes occur during the fermentation process only or 
while being dried) take place in the cacao bean between the time 
that it leaves the pod until it is shoveled into the bag for export. 
For further information those reas may address the editor 
of Tropical Life, 112 Fenchurch St, . London. 
The Botanical Garden of the Johns Hopkins University, 
situated in the western part of Homewood, Baltimore, is now 
open to the public, and a brief guide to the grounds and collec- 
tions has been issued by Professor Duncan S. Johnson as a one 
from the Circular of the University for June, 1909. The garden 
has been established primarily as an aid to botanical research and 
instruction in the university, and its arrangement has been planned 
with this end in view. It is believed, however, that the garden 
and greenhouse will prove interesting to all members of the uni- 
versity, and to other citizens of Baltimore as well. The garden 
consists of four sections, illustrating the chief types of vegetative 
organs, the structure and biology of the reproductive organs o. 
plants, the genealogy of plants as indicated by their classification, 
and the useful and ornamental plants, chiefly those native to tem- 
perate regions. In the further development of the botanical 
zarden, it is planned to illustrate various types of plant associa- 
tions, some of the important facts of geographical distribution, 
and the habitat-relations of various plant forms. It is expected 
chat the general planting of the Homewood grounds may be car- 
‘ied out in such a way that the groups of shrubs and trees so 
ased shall have scientific as well as ornamental value. 
