February 11, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



239 



days of the journey. They had been caught only 

 a few days before shipping. Two young bottle- 

 fed gazelles and a lophiomys also died, and one 

 eland (a gift) which was very thin and weak at 

 the start. Both of the McMillan cheetahs died 

 before the shipment was made. The other animals 

 arrived in excellent condition and were as fol- 

 lows: five lions, a leopard, Julian's warthog, 

 Grant's zebra, pair Livingstone's eland, pair 

 Coke's hartebeest, female waterbuek, Thomson's 

 gazelle, baboon (species not yet determined), 

 lophiomys, crested eagle, Bateleur eagle, two vul- 

 tures and a hawk. 



The ruminants and warthog were subject to 

 fifteen days quarantine, and Mr. A. E. Brown, 

 director of the Philadelphia Zoological Garden, 

 kindly received them there for that period. The 

 others were brought to Washington at once, and 

 reached the park December 19. All of the ani- 

 mals have done well thus far, except the male 

 eland, which died suddenly at the Philadelphia 

 garden. The autopsy did not show any condition 

 which would account for the death. Rabbits have 

 been inoculated with the blood of the quaran- 

 tined animals, and the animals will be kept at 

 Philadelphia until the results of this are known. 



The collection includes fifteen species, of which 

 eleven are new to the park. 



The Present Status of the Bark Disease of the 

 Chestnut: Haven Metcalf. (Illustrated with 

 lantern slides.) 



A disastrous chestnut disease was first re- 

 ported in 1904, in the vicinity of New York city, 

 and in 1906 was stated by Murrill to be caused 

 by a new fungus, which he named Diaporthe 

 parasitica. It is probable that this disease had 

 existed for a number of years previously about 

 New York and on Long Island. At the present 

 time it has spread from Saratoga County, N. Y., 

 and Suffolk Coimty, Mass., on the north and 

 east, to Bedford County, Va., on the south, and 

 Greenbriar and Preston counties, W. Va. and 

 Westmoreland County, Pa., on the west. The 

 fungus attacks the tree at any point above the 

 ground, producing cankers of the bark, which 

 spread until they meet in the bark on the oppo- 

 site side, thus girdling the trunk or limb upon 

 which they are situated, thus death may result 

 very quickly by girdling. Sprouts are regularly 

 formed below girdled points, and are quite char- 

 acteristic of this disease. Roots and first-year 

 wood are rarely, if ever, attacked. The most 

 common places for the occurrence of cankers are 



the large crotches, the base of the trunk and the 

 ultimate twigs. Progress of the disease is most 

 rapid during the spring months; but south of 

 New York, at least, inoculations may take effect 

 at any time of the year. A debilitated tree is no 

 more subject to attack than a healthy one. So 

 far as known, all species and varieties of the 

 genus Oastanea are subject to the disease, except 

 the Japanese chestnut which is almost completely 

 im m une. It has so far been found impossible to 

 produce the disease in any related genera. The 

 fungus ordinarily gains entrance through wounds, 

 of which the commonest are the tunnels produced 

 by various bark borers. Such wounds as these 

 are always moist, and hence favorable to the 

 growth of any spore. Lesions resulting from 

 winter injury afford entrance to the fungus, but 

 winter injury bears no other relation to the dis- 

 ease. The presence of the characteristic fungus 

 forms a certain basis for distinguishing whether 

 any given case is the bark disease or winter in- 

 jury alone, but recourse must be had, even by the 

 expert, to the damp-chamber and the compound 

 microscope, since in dry weather the fungus may 

 produce no spores. The bark disease shows no 

 definite relation to the points of the compass, as 

 the location of lesions is determined by the posi- 

 tion of the wounds through which the fungus 

 gained entrance. In small, smooth-barked trees, 

 death may be prevented by a system of inspection 

 and cutting out of diseased tissue, somewhat 

 similar to that practised with pear-blight. On 

 large, thick-barked trees this is impracticable, as 

 it is impossible to distinguish disease lesions 

 under the thick bark. It is impossible to prog- 

 nosticate what the disease will or will not do in 

 the future, as there are very few historical data 

 from which to judge the course of this or any 

 other plant disease. The dry summers of the 

 past two years have slightly cheeked the progress 

 of the disease, but it remains to be seen what a 

 damp summer may do. 



D. E. Lantz, 

 Recording Secretary 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON 



At the 440th regular meeting, January 18, 1910, 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam addressed the society on 

 " Myths of California Indians." The speaker con- 

 fined himself to the three great groups of central 

 California. Their myths, though they are obvi- 

 ously not homogenous, have the same personages 

 and characters, viz., the pre-Indian inhabitants 



