770 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 307. 



SECTION OF HORTICVLTUBE AND BOTANY 

 OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AGRICUL- 

 TURAL COLLEGES AND EX- 

 PERI3IENT STATIONS. 



The meetiug of the Section of Horticulture 

 and Botauy of the A-ssociation of Agricultural 

 Colleges and Experiment Stations convened in 

 New Haven, Connecticut, November 13th, with 

 S. A. Beach, as Chairman, and Professor P. H. 

 Rolfs, as Secretary. The program was as fol- 

 lows : 



1. 'The Function of the Station Botanist,' Dr. 

 George E. Stone, Amherst, Mass. ; Discussion led by 

 Professor P. H. Rolfs, Clemson College, S. C. 



2. ' Plant Physiology in its Relation to Agriculture 

 and Horticulture,' Albert F. Woods, Chief of Division 

 of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology, Washington, 

 T>. C. 



3. ' Grasses and Forage Plant Investigation in Ex- 

 periment Stations and the Division of Agrostology,' 

 Thomas A. Williams, Division of Agrostology, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



4. Instructional Work, [a) ' Laboratory and Field 

 Worli for Students in Horticulture, ' Professor E. S. 

 Goff, Madison, Wis. (6) ' The Nature Study Move- 

 ment,' Professor L. H. Bailey, Ithaca, N. Y. (c) 

 'The Educational Status of Horticulture,' Professor 

 Fred. W. Card, Kingston, R. I. 



b. Variety Testing and Plant Breeding. {a) 

 'Progress of Variety Testing in Experiment Station 

 Work,' Professor F. William Rane, Durham, N. H. 

 (ft) 'What our Experiment Stations have done in 

 Originating Varieties of Plants by Crossing and Se- 

 lection, ' Dr. B. D. Halsted, New Brunswick, N. J. 

 (c) ' The Relation of the Section of Seed and Plant 

 Introduction to Experiment Stations,' Jared G. 

 Smith, Section of Seed and Plant Introduction, 

 Washington, D. C. ((/) Discussion led by Dr. Walter 

 T. Swingle, Washington, D. C, and Professor Willet 

 M. Hays, St. Anthony Park, Minn. 



6. ' A Vegetable House arranged for Pot Experi- 

 ments,' Mr. W. E. Britton, Horticulturist, New 

 Haven, Conn. 



TEE ANNUAL CONGRESS OF THE GERMAN 

 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY.* 

 The Thirty -first Congress of the German An- 

 thropological Society was held in the Univer- 

 sity town of Halle from September 24^27. In 

 addition to its rich University collections, a 

 special interest is attached to Halle as being 



* From Nature. 



the seat of the oldest German society for en- 

 couraging the study of natural science, viz., the 

 Leopoldina-Carolina Academy, which is thus 

 comparable to the Royal Society in this coun- 

 try. To the students of prehistoric archeology, 

 the Prussian province of Saxony is chiefly in- 

 teresting from the fact of the existence of the 

 copper-mines at Eisleben, some little distance 

 from Halle. The meetiugs were held under 

 the presidency of Professor Virchow, assisted 

 by Professor Rauke. At the opening session 

 on Mondajr, September 24th, the presidential 

 address (dealing with the general progress of 

 anthropological studj' and teaching) was fol- 

 lowed bj' a series of addresses from representa- 

 tives of the University and town of Halle, of 

 which that of the local secretary, Dr. Fortsch, 

 is particularly noteworthy as containing a 

 sketch of local prehistoric archeology, a field 

 of research in which Dr. Fortsch has heen par- 

 ticularly active, and which he has popularized 

 with evident success. Of the subsequent com- 

 munications to the Congress, the majority 

 which dealt with archeology, there appear to 

 us most worthy of mention the discussion 

 opened by Professor Virchow on the ' Earliest 

 Appearance of the Slavs in Germany,' and the 

 account (illustrated with excellent lantern 

 slides) given by Dr. Birkner (Munich) of the 

 investigation of the graves of the German em- 

 perors in Speyer. Professor v. Fritzsch (Halle) 

 and Dr. Lehmann-Nitzsche (La Plata) rendered 

 interesting accounts of discoveries of prehis- 

 toric man in Thiiringia and in the Argentine 

 respectively, the latter record being still the 

 subject of investigation as regards the exact 

 antiquity (Tertiary period) claimed for the find. 

 It is a matter of some surprise that the de- 

 partment of physical anthropology should not 

 have been the subject of more papers than 

 were actuallj' presented at Halle, which Uni- 

 versity claims the two Meckels and Welcker 

 among its former professors of anatomJ^ The 

 chief contributions to this subject were those of 

 Dr. Schmidt-Moniiard (Halle) on the relation 

 between the growth and the weight of children 

 of both sexes ; of Dr. Eisler (Halle) on the 

 Musculus stenialis ; and of Professor Klaatsch 

 (Heidelberg) on the method of research adopted 

 by anatomists, illustrated specifically by obser- 



