May 29, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



791 



of plants. These summaries are so systemati- 

 cally arranged that they must prove of the 

 greatest help to plant physiologists. 



Allied to the foregoing is Dr. F. J. Alway's 

 paper, " Studies on the Eolation of the Non- 

 available "Water of the Soil to the Hygro- 

 scopic Coefficient " (Research Bull. No. 3, 

 Agr'l. Expt. Station of Nebraska). 



Among the recent pathological papers are: 

 M. T. Cook's Eeport of the Pathologist for the 

 year 1912 (N. J. Expt. Station) enumerating 

 especially the diseases of the year; Ethel 

 Field's Fungous Diseases Liable to be Dis- 

 seminated in Shipments of Sugar Cane (Cir- 

 cular 126; Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. 

 Dept. Agric.) ; Adeline Ames's New Wood- 

 Destroying Fungus (Bot. Gaz., May, 1913) ; 

 P. J. O'Gara's Studies on the Water Core of 

 Apples {Phytopathology, April, 1913), and Or- 

 ganization and Methods of Control of Plant 

 Diseases (Wash. State Hort. Assn., 1913). 



Here may be mentioned H. R. Cox's paper, 

 " Controlling Canada Thistles " (Farmer's 

 Bulletin 545, TJ. S. Dept. Agr.), containing a 

 good deal as to the biology of these weeds, as 

 well as practical suggestions as to how they 

 may be eradicated. 



Here too should be noted 0. F. Cook's 

 "Wild Wheat in Palestine" (Bull. 274, Bu- 

 reau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. Agric), 

 describing " a new type of wheat growing in 

 a wild state " in Palestine. Though this 

 paper " does not attempt to reach a final de- 

 cision on the question whether the wild wheat 

 of Palestine is the true ancestor or prototype 

 of the domesticated varieties of wheat," it 

 does serve to bring out " several additional 

 facts regarding the character and habits of the 

 plants." 



THE NEW VOLUME OF THE SYLLOGE FUNGORUM 



Quite recently the twenty-second volume of 

 this work reached American subscribers. It 

 is a continuation of the " Supplementum 

 Universale " of the twenty-first volume, and 

 includes the descriptions of added species of 

 fungi to the end of the year 1910. Like the 

 volume immediately preceding, it is the joint 



work of P. A. Saccardo and Alex. Trotter. 

 It is devoted to the Ascomyceteae (pp. 1-822) 

 and Deuteromyceteae (pp. 823-1505). A 

 Repertorium of 24 pages, an Alphabetical In- 

 dex of species (69 pages), and an Index of 

 Genera (13 pages) close the volume. 



Charles E. Bessey 

 The University of Nebraska 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



THE SOLAR SPECTRUM AND THE EARTH's CRUST 



Professor Rowland's list of the elements 

 whose lines appear in the solar spectrum has 

 long been a classic work of reference among 

 astronomers, and Dr. F. W. Clarke's summary 

 of the chemical composition of the earth's 

 crust occupies a similar position among geol- 

 ogists. Each list has been thoroughly dis- 

 cussed, by various writers, from the stand- 

 point of the science to which it belongs; but 

 little attention seems to have been called to 

 the striking resemblances between the two. 



In the annexed table are given (1) Row- 

 land's list of the elements whose dark lines 

 appear in the integrated spectrum of the sun, 

 arranged in the order of the combined inten- 

 sity of the lines of each element, as quoted 

 in Abbot's "The Sun," p. 91 (1911); (2) a 

 similar list of the elements, arranged in the 

 order of the intensity of their bright lines 

 in the spectrum of the solar atmosphere, as 

 photographed at the total eclipse of 1905 by 

 S. A. Mitchell! ; (3) Clarke's table of the per- 

 centage composition of the outer ten miles of 

 the earth's substance, including the litho- 

 sphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere,^ and (4) 

 the average composition of ninety-nine stony 

 meteorites, as derived by G. P. Merrill from 

 published analyses.^ 



1 Astrophysical Journal, 38, 407-495, and 39, 

 166-177, 1913-14. 



2 As given by Mm in Bulletin 491 of the U. S. 

 Geological purvey, pp. 27-33, with additional data 

 from papers in the Proceedings of the American 

 Philosophical Society, Vol. 51, p. 220, 1912, and 

 the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sci- 

 ences, Vol. 4, pp. 59-62, 1914. 



3 Quoted by Clarke on p. 39 of the work first 

 cited. 



