738 
mittee. The cause of the disease is found 
to be physiological, not caused by any or- 
ganism, as it was thought before. A 
remedy for the disease is still being inves- 
tigated. 
There are several botanists in Tokyo out- 
side of the above-mentioned institutions. 
Dr. Okamura, who is the lecturer of the 
Fishery Institute of the Government, is 
making continued studies on the marine 
alge of the Japanese seas. He has just is- 
sued the first fasciculus of his ‘ Algee Japon- 
ice Exsiccatze,’ which contains fifty species. 
Dr. T. Ito, who studied botany at the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge some fifteen years 
ago, is making extensive systematic studies 
on the flora of Loochoo islands. A part 
of the work was published in alate number 
of the Journal of the College of Science, 
Imperial University of Tokyo. 
The works of the Japanese botanists are 
often published in the Journal of the Col- 
lege of Science, Imperial University of 
Tokyo, as well as in the leading foreign 
journals. The shorter papers appear in the 
Botanical Magazine. The magazine is pub- 
lished monthly, partly in Japanese and 
partly in the European languages. It is 
the organ of the Tokyo Botanical Society. 
The Society has about three hundred mem- 
bers, living in various parts of Japan. 
Among them we find many high and com- 
mon school teachers. There are two series 
of small pamphlets published monthly with 
figures and descriptions of Japanese plants. 
One contains figures, with brief descriptions 
and remarks of the flowering plants and 
ferns of Japan. The other contains those 
of the lower cryptogams. The illustrations 
and descriptions in the former are made 
by Mr. Makino. The latter is contributed 
to by many Japanese botanists and edited 
by Professors Matsumura and Miyoshi. 
A still larger work on Japanese botany 
has just begun to be published. This is the 
‘Icones Florze  Japonice,’ a large-sized 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 332. 
pamphlet with minute and careful drawings 
and descriptions of Japanese plants, com- 
piled by the Botanical Department of the 
University. Volume I., Part 1, has lately 
been published. Mr. Makino is now en- 
gaged on the work. All the drawings and 
descriptions are made by his own hand. 
In closing I must not neglect to make a 
brief statement of the Botanical Laboratory 
in the Agricultural College of Sapporo far 
north in ‘Hokkaido,’ the Yezo Island. 
The director of the Botanical Laboratory 
and the Botanical Garden is Professor 
Miyabé. He studied at Harvard Univer- 
sity some ten years ago. The herbarium 
of the Laboratory has a complete set of the 
plants of the Yezo Island, besides other 
Japanese and foreign plants. Professor 
Miyabé is interested in fungi and plant dis- 
eases. Several works in this line have 
been done both by him and by his students. 
Professor Miyabé also studied the Lami- 
nariacez of the northern seas. Two new 
genera have been established by him in 
this single family. 
Japan is a long country, though narrow, 
extending from 51° north to the tropics. 
The variety and richness of the flora are 
incomparable. Though the phanerogams 
and the ferns of the empire are pretty well 
known, many lower cryptogams have not 
been thoroughly investigated. 
Kricut MryaK#. 
BoraANIcAL DEPARTMENT, : 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
Reservoirs for Irrigation, Water Power, and Do- 
mestic Water Supply. By JAMES Dix ScHuy- 
LER, M.Am.Soc.C.H., etc., ete. New York, 
John Wiley and Sons, 1901. $5. Pp. xvi + 
414. 174 figs., with maps and appendix. 
The subject of reclaiming by irrigation the 
extensive arid tracts of western North America 
is pressed upon the attention of the general 
public, and also upon that of the engineering 
and financial world, with increasing emphasis 
from year to year. Private capital is urged to 
