794 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. XV. No. 385. 



less pupils in their charge. What botanist has 

 not seen these books which are filled with gush 

 and nonsense, and nothing more? A few days 

 ago a new book on nature study appeared, and 

 it did not require long examination to show 

 that it is of an entirely different order. It was 

 prepared by Professor Hodge of Clark Univer- 

 sity, and it is not too much to say that it is 

 by far the best and sanest book on this subject 

 that has yet appeared. The inevitable result 

 of such work as the author outlines will be the 

 greater love of nature by the child, and yet we 

 do not find that pupils are urged and admon- 

 ished to 'be good children, and love nature.' 

 There is absolutely nothing of this kind, yet 

 the book is eloquent in suggestions of the lov- 

 ableness of plants, and birds, and insects, and 

 all manner of creeping things. The namby- 

 pambyism which the healthy-minded boy so 

 properly hates and despises is wanting, and in 

 place of it are the most suggestive of photo- 

 graphs, and descriptions of things that live, 

 and are waiting to be seen by sharp-eyed chil- 

 dren. The book must be seen to be known, but 

 a few of the chapter headings will give some 

 idea of the treatment. 'Children's Animals 

 and Pets,' ' Insects of the Household,' ' Garden 

 Studies, Home and School Gardens,' 'Propaga- 

 tion of Plants,' 'Common Frogs and Sala- 

 manders,' 'Our Common Birds,' 'Practical 

 Domestication of our "Wild Birds,' ' Elementary 

 Forestry,' 'Flowerless Plants,' are some of the 

 titles. The book will no doubt find its way 

 into many schools, and it should drive out the 

 swarm of worthless volumes that have pre- 

 ceded it. 



OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE FUNGI. 



The sixteenth volume of Saccardo's Sylloge 

 Fungorum, which has just made its appearance 

 enables us to judge of the rapidity with which 

 mycologists are describing the species of fungi. 

 The last preceding supplementary volume con- 

 taining descriptions of added species, appeared 

 in August, 1899, so that but little more than 

 two and a half years have passed, and yet we 

 have here an aggregation of 4,314 descriptions, 

 and an appendix of 539 new species and variet- 

 ies for which the descriptions are not gener- 

 ally given. These 4,853 additions to previously 



described species bring the total number in the 

 work as a whole up to 52,157. If we make no 

 allowance for synonyms and descriptions of 

 'forms' this is the total number of fungi now 

 known. The additions in this volume are 

 divided as follows : Hymenomyceteae, 886 ; 

 Gasteromycetese, 120 ; Uredinaeese, 523 ; Usti- 

 laginacese, 79 ; Phycomyceteag, 55 ; Pyrenomy- 

 cetese, 1,102; Laboulbeniacese, 231; Discomy- 

 cetese, 466; Deuteromyceteae ('Fungi Imper- 

 fecti'), 1,367. A general index to all of the 

 volumes, I. to XVI., completes the volume. 



PACIFIC SEASIDE BOTANY. 



For the past ten years there has been main- 

 tained at Pacific Grove, two miles west of 

 Monterey, California, a summer school of inves- 

 tigation, under the name of the Hopkins Sea- 

 side Laboratory, in which exceptional opportu- 

 nities for botanical study have been afforded. 

 The session this year opens June 9, and con- 

 tinues for six weeks and the botanical work 

 is to be under the direction of Dr. A. A. Law- 

 son. In addition to the usual general course 

 in botany, there are courses for advanced stu- 

 dents in the marine algse, cytology, and micro- 

 technique. The well-known richness of the 

 marine flora of this part of the coast renders 

 work in this laboratory especially instructive. 

 There are two two-story buildings capable of 

 accommodating eighty students, which are 

 used for laboratories. As the Laboratory is a 

 branch of the biological departments of Leland 

 Stanford Junior University, the facilities are 

 certain to be complete as to apparatus, libra- 

 ries, etc. 



A thousand miles north of Monterey is an- 

 other seaside station, at Port Eenfrew, Van- 

 couver Island, under the charge of Professor 

 ^MacMillan, of the University of Minnesota. 

 It was established last year, and a successful 

 session was held. This year the session opens 

 about the middle of July and extends to the 

 1st of September. Botanical instruction will 

 be given on the Phseophycese (MacMillan), 

 Ehodophycese (Yendo), Chlorophyceae and 

 Cyanophyceae (Tilden). The results of the 

 first session lead us to look for work of a high 

 order at this station. The brown seaweeds 

 (Phseophycese) are represented by an un- 



