JULY 21, 1899.] 
their general usefulness must be world-wide. 
Their field of investigation even is not to be 
confined by the artificial limits of the 
United States, though much remains to be 
known of our own flora, even that of the 
more carefully explored eastern region, and 
especially among the hordes of lower plants 
that are just beginning to be disclosed. The 
whole American continent, from Alaska to 
Cape Horn, with all that immense dark con- 
tinent of South America, must be the work- 
ing field of the American botanist. The 
investigators of the Old World are naturally 
more concentrated on the study of their 
own continent, and are generally agreed to 
leave America to the Americans. The 
Spanish Americans have accomplished al- 
most nothing in the development of the 
knowledge of their own floras or the possi- 
bilities of their economic vegetal products. 
The Anglo-Saxon blood in the New World, 
as in the Old, must originate and direct all 
exploration and development, and this will 
form one portion of the work of American 
botanical gardens. But the scientific study 
of the flora is only the foundation, the very 
necessary first step for subsequent work. 
The study of the active properties of plants, 
medicinal or otherwise useful to man, de- 
serves close attention, as therecent discovery 
of numerous important economic products 
will testify. The question of extending the 
already prodigious work of transporting the 
more abundant products of the tropical 
zone to the region of the highest civilization 
forms another problem in which the botan- 
ical expert is needed to cooperate; then 
there are important problems of ecology, of 
plant physiology and of plant diseases, all 
of which have a direct bearing on the con- 
stant and ever-increasing supply of food 
and shelter for the human race, and these 
can only be worked out in the presence of 
such conditions and such extensive collec- 
tions of plants as a large botanical garden 
will afford. An extensive garden, with a 
SCIENCE. U5 
director at its head who is primarily a 
botanist with the widest possible acquaint- 
ance with plants and who understands in 
in what directions botanical science needs 
to be developed so as to prove most bene- 
ficial to the race at large, and with depart- 
ments of research so endowed that skilled 
botanical experts in their exclusive special- 
ties can prosecute their investigations free 
from galling questions of personal support 
—such a garden is capable of becoming even 
more influential in democratic America than 
Kew has become throughout the length and 
breadth of the Queen’s dominions. 
Lucien Marcus UNDERWooD. 
ABSORPTION IN VERTEBRATE INTESTINAL 
CELLS. 
Tue lining membrane of the vertebrate 
intestine consists of a single layer of cells. 
These cells are of two kinds. Designating 
them according to their form, the accepted 
nomenclature is Cylinder cells and Goblet 
cells. Certain authors have, however, 
adopted a nomenclature based on physio- 
logical differences and term them Proto- 
plasm cells and Mucus cells. 
The Cylinder or Protoplasm cells are 
typical epithelial elements. They have the 
form of five- or six-sided pyramids, the 
broad end facing the lumen of the intestine 
and the narrower end resting upon con- 
nective tissue (Tunica propria). Oppel 
(Lehrbuch der Vergl. Mikr. Anat.) calls 
the attached end the base and the free end 
the apex. The apex is characterized by the 
possession of a striated border, a structure 
having the appearance of a bunch of cilia. 
Its true nature is still in doubt. The 
nucleus is relatively large and situated near 
the basal end. The cells have no mem- 
brane. They are usually several times as 
numerous as the goblet cells. 
The Goblet or Mucus cells have typically 
a goblet shape, but show great variation in 
this respect. They are usually described as 
