FEBRUARY 22, 1901.] 
joint work a most successful undertaking. I hope 
that I shall succeed in making similar arrangements 
with the botanists of other countries. 
The report comments upon the foregoing 
as follows : 
The committee feels that the Society is greatly 
indebted to the editors of the Centralblatt for their 
courteous letter and must be highly gratified with 
their statement of the changes which they express 
themselves prepared to make in the near future. The 
changes, as will be seen from Dr. Uhlworm’s letter, are 
in conformity with the suggestions made by the com- 
mittee in its report and will meet with the approval 
of all American botanists. It is proposed to include 
in the Centralblaté proper, only reviews and the index 
of literature; the Bejhefte will contain only original ar- 
ticles ; the Centralblatt may be subscribed for without 
also subscribing for the Bethefte, and, lastly. the price 
of the Centralblati is to remain as at present. On these 
points, therefore, the letter of Dr. Uhlworm is entirely 
satisfactory. 
The suggestions that American editors be nomi- 
nated by a representative body of American botanists 
seem to be excellent and likely to prove helpful to the 
Centralblatt by stimulating our botanists to make a 
determined and combined effort to do all in their 
power to enable the editors of the Centralblatt, so far, 
at least, as American botanical literature is concerned, 
to make their journal indispensable to all botanists. 
Hereafter, it will be a matter of pride to us to show 
that our interest is not merely passive, but that we 
are ready to make active individual and collective ef- 
fort to secure a desirable result. 
The Committee closes its report with the 
following recommendations : 
First, that the Secretary be directed to write to 
Dr. Uhlworm and express our hearty approval of the 
changes proposed, and our readiness to cooperate. 
Secondly, that a committee of three be appointed 
by the Society with full power to represent the Society 
in further negotiations with the management of the 
Centralblatt up to such time as the selection of Ameri- 
can editors shall have been definitely made, the com- 
mittee to report to the Society at its next annual 
meeting. 
‘Thirdly, that the committee thus appointed be re- 
quested to invite one botanist from the Central 
States and one botanist resident on the Pacific 
Coast to serve with them in the selection of American 
editors, and in such preliminary business as may be 
necessary for the furtherance of the plans proposed. 
by the editors of the Centralblatt. 
Fourthly, that a copy of this report, or of such 
SCIENCE. 
301 
parts of it as may seem desirable in order to call the 
attention of our botanists to the changes to be made 
in the Centralblatt, be sent to the Botanical Gazette, 
the Bulletin of the Torrey Club and to SCIENCE. 
In accordance with the second recom- 
mendation, Messers. Farlow, MacDougal 
and Ganong were appointed upon the new 
committee to carry out the work to comple- 
tion, and Messrs. Trelease and Campbell 
have since been added, in accordance with 
section three above. The botanists of the 
country are to be congratulated upon the 
results achieved by these negotiations. The 
changes proposed, and in part already put 
into effect, promise to make the Botanisches 
Centralblatt an efficient and economical jour- 
nal of reviews indispensable to every work- 
ing botanist. It is hoped that those of 
America will manifest their appreciation of 
its advantages, and their acknowledgment 
of the efforts of its editors and publishers 
to meet their wishes, by a cordial and prac- 
tical support. Upon this latter subject a 
further communication is expected from 
the Committee. Cuarues E. BEssry. 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of 
Engineering Education. Vol. VIII. 1900. 
Edited by PROFESSORS JOHNSON, KINGSBURY 
and JAcoBy. New York, Engineering News 
Publishing Co. 1900. 8vo. Pp. 377. 
It may be doubted whether, in any other de- 
partment of applied science, a larger, a more 
important, or a more fruitful work is being 
done than in the field occupied by the Society 
of which the transactions are here recorded. 
The members of the Society are engaged in the 
technical schools and colleges of the country in 
the professional training of men who are to 
hereafter lead in the application of the discoy- 
eries of science, of the inventions of the useful 
arts and of the methods of modern industrial 
operation in the new century. Their work is 
the instruction of youth who, having completed 
the general education that their parents’ money 
and their own time and scholarly proclivities 
may afford them, turn their attention to the 
