208 
surface of the water, so that the plants, being deprived of their 
supply of air, soon perished. ne summer of such treatment 
practically eliminated cis mass of vegetation. How much easier 
is this method than the old way of digging out the ee by 
hand with mattock and ax, at great expense and much labor. It 
makes the transformation of an old swamp into an aquatic gar- 
den quite possible at spielen slight aa and little labor. 
There are many such swamps and around New York City, 
where mosquitos breed and re ie ee of malaria, 
which might readily be transformed from their present unsightly . 
appearance into objects of beauty and interest. 
Grorce V. Nasu. 
NOTES, NEWS AND COMMENT. 
Dr. E. J. Durand, instructor in botany in Cornell University, 
spent the last two weeks of August at the Garden, consulting the 
collections of fleshy discomycetes in preparation of manuscript 
for “ North American Flora.” 
Mr. W. W. Eggleston left August 26 for North Carolina, 
where he will devote several weeks to botanical exploration. 
Miss M. F. Barrett, instructor in the State Normal School, 
Montclair, N. J., was in residence at the Garden during the month 
of July, preparing a monograph of the North American species 
of gelatinous fungi. 
Miss Lewanna Wilkins, of the Eastern High School, Wash- 
ington, D. C., spent the latter part of July and the first two 
weeks of August at the Garden, continuing her studies on the 
family Solanaceae. 
Mr. Norman Taylor, assistant curator, spent four weeks during 
July and August in making collections of material for the local 
herbarium. Two weeks were spent at Windham, Greene County, 
New York, which was used as a base for excursions projected 
into the surrounding country. New Baltimore, also in Greene 
County, was visited during the last two weeks. Collections were 
made there along the northerly county line, on the islands in the 
son River, and from Poelsburg, Columbia County, New 
