MAy 24, 1901.] 
with to make it valuable as a handbook, but the 
work will serve a good purpose in stimulating 
a desire on the part of the reader to know more 
of the subject and lead him to examine some 
of the more complete works. 
ALBERT F’, Woops. 
THE CYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN HORTICUL- 
TURE.* 
Ir is scarcely a year since the first volume of 
Bailey and Miller’s Cyclopedia of American 
Horticulture appeared. The third volume, 
bringing the work down to page 1486, has now 
come from the press, and there is reason to 
hope that the concluding volume will not be 
delayed much beyond the end of the summer. 
Considering the large number of persons who 
have written ‘copy,’ the many illustrations to 
be selected and prepared, and the extent of 
the work, this promptness of publication is not 
only deserving of commendation but quite re- 
markable. 
What has been said of the quality of the 
earlier volumes (SCIENCE, June 1 and August 
10, 1900) applies equally to the one now under 
consideration. Perhaps the general reader will 
be most interested in the excellent brief horti- 
cultural treatment of the States the names of 
which begin with N to P—therefore compris- 
ing most of the great horticultural States of the 
country—and of the Philippines and Porto 
Rico, and in the articles on parks, perfumery 
gardening, photography as applied to horticul- 
ture, physiology of plants, plant breeding, and 
the correct methods of potting and pruning 
plants. The most extensive botanical mono- 
graphs are those of Opuntia, Pinus, Populus, 
Prunus, Pyrus and Quercus; and the most im- 
portant horticultural monographs, aside from 
some of these, are those of the Orange, Peach, 
Pear, Pelargonium, Pecan and Primula. 
Ts 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 
Atv the meeting of the Society, held at Colum- 
bia University, on April 27th, Professor A. A. 
*Bailey, L. H. and Miller, W. Cyclopedia of 
American Horticulture. N-Q. Pp. xv +432. PI. 
11+ ff. 606. New York, 1901. The Macmillan Com- 
pany. Price, $5.00. 
SCIENCE. 
823 
Michelson, of Chicago, was elected president to 
fill the vacancy caused by the death of Pro- 
fessor H. A. Rowland, and Professor A. G. 
Webster, of Clark University, was elected vice- 
president. The following resolution was adop- 
ted and made a part of the minutes: 
The Physical Society desires to record its deep 
sense of sorrow for the death of its late president, Pro- 
fessor H. A. Rowland, and its- appreciation of his 
services to science. By his brilliant researches he 
did much to advance our knowledge of physics, and 
by his work as a professor he stimulated many 
students to greater zeal for accurate scholarship and 
scientific investigation. His interest in the Society 
was shown from its beginning, and it owes much to 
the care with which he watched over the organization. 
By his death the Society, the science which it repre- 
sents, and our country have sustained a loss which 
will be severely felt. 
At the same meeting of the Physical Society 
Professor S. W. Stratton gave an account of the 
organization of the National Bureau of Stand- 
ards which is to be established at Washington, 
and which, it is hoped, will prove of great value 
both to the scientific workers of the country 
and to manufacturers, 
A paper by Mr. Bergen Davis on a ‘New 
Phenomenon produced by Stationary Sound 
Waves’ described some interesting quantitative 
experiments with organ pipes. The apparatus 
and methods employed by Mr. Davis gave re- 
sults in close accord with what theory would 
predict, and they make it appear possible to 
bring the experimental study of these subjects 
on to an exact quantitative basis. 
Mr. H. J. Hotchkiss presented a paper on 
the ‘Counter E. M. F. of the Electric Arc,’ 
giving an account of an experimental study of 
one phase of this much-discussed question. Mr. 
Hotchkiss employed an oscillograph, of a type 
which he has developed and used in numerous 
previous investigations, to determine whether 
the are contains a counter electromotive force 
which lasts for an appreciable time after the 
current has been removed. The period of the 
needle of the oscillograph was about 1/5,000 of 
a second, and a study of the curves obtained by 
it has led Mr. Hotchkiss to the conclusion that 
if a counter electromotive force does exist, 
which lasts as long as a ten-thousandth of a 
second after the current is broken, then the 
