282 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 999 



The errors of the noon and 10 p.m. time 

 signals as sent out by the Naval Observatory 

 during the month of January, 1914, were as 

 follows : 



The January number of the Brooklyn Bo- 

 tanic Garden Record contains a prospectus of 

 courses to be offered by the Botanic Garden 

 during 1914. There are 29 different courses, 

 ranging from children's gardens and nature 

 study to research work in plant physiology, 

 mycology and plant pathology and genetics, 

 and including courses in introductory botany, 

 seven courses in household botany and horti- 

 culture, a course for the training of teachers 

 of children's gardens, comprising nine differ- 

 ent sub-courses, extending from January to 

 October, and advanced botanical courses in 

 plant pathology, fresh water microbiology, cy- 

 tology, experimental evolution and phytogeog- 

 raphy. In addition to the regular courses of 

 instruction, there are also announced four 

 courses of public lectures, two for children and 

 two for adults, together with a statement of 

 ways in which the Botanic Garden is prepared 

 to cooperate with local schools in their botan- 



ical and nature study work. Classes in botany 

 from high schools in Brooklyn are now using 

 the equipment of the Botanic Garden, in some 

 cases being taught at the Garden by their own 

 teachers, and in other cases by members of the 

 Garden staff, appointed especially for this 

 work. 



The city of Columbus and the State Uni- 

 versity have cooperated in the Columbus Hor- 

 ticultural Society, which is one of the oldest 

 organizations of its kind in the United States, 

 having been organized in 1845. The regular 

 annual meeting was held in the new archeo- 

 logical and historical museum on the univer- 

 sity campus, December 27, 1913. Professor 

 William E. Lazenby was reelected president; 

 H. Warren Phelps, vice-president ; L. M. Mont- 

 gomery, secretary; W. C. Mills, treasurer. 

 The society has invested funds amounting to 

 $6,000. It publishes a volume of its proceed- 

 ings each year. 



Some of the acacias, a group of trees with a 

 world-circling range, are so valuable as a 

 source of tannin and timber, says the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in a bulletin recently is- 

 sued, that their commercial cultivation in cer- 

 tain portions of the United States may prove 

 profitable. Aside from their value for tannin 

 and lumber, they are well adapted to the rec- 

 lamation of sandy and semi-desert lands, 

 some species being able to thrive with only 

 three inches of rainfall. There are about 450 

 species of acacias, 300 of which are Australian 

 species and the rest scattered over the world, 

 principally in Asia, Africa and America. Au- 

 tralian acacias were introduced into Califor- 

 nia at about the same time the eucalypts were, 

 and like the latter, have thrived there. Like 

 the eucalypts they are not resistant to frost. 

 At the present time the chief commercial 

 value of acacias, says the department, seems 

 to be for tanbark, although the tanbark spe- 

 cies have important by-products. All of the 

 leading tanbark acacias come from Australia, 

 where they are generally known as wattles, 

 from the fact that they were originally used 

 for weaving and wattling the walls of huts. 

 Actual tannin contents of the three principal 

 tanbark acacias, as shown by analyses at the 



