Apbil 15, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



585 



1909 before the Iowa Eugineering Society 

 (published in the Proceedings of the So- 

 ciety) which is a vigorous defense of the con- 

 tention of the foresters that forests conserve 

 the rainfall in such, a manner as to mate- 

 rially affect stream flow. Beginning as a de- 

 fense, the writer rapidly pushes his discussion 

 into a smashing criticism of recent state- 

 m.ents made in certain quarters as to the in- 

 efficiency of forests in holding back and less- 

 ening floods. The paper should be widely 

 read at this time when concerted assaults are 

 being made upon the efficiency of the forest 

 cover. 



Here we may notice Professor Bray's bul- 

 letin on " The Mistletoe Pest in the South- 

 west " (Bull. 166, Bureau of Plant Industrj', 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture). From it 

 we learn that the American mistletoe 

 (Phoradendron fiavescens) extends through 

 the southern states across Texas, New Mex- 

 ico and Arizona to southern California, 

 thence northward in the coast region to Ore- 

 gon and Washington. In the east its north- 

 ern limit is New Jersey, southern Pennsyl- 

 vania to southern Illinois, Missouri and 

 eastern Oklahoma. In Texas it attacks 

 species of Micoria, Quercus, Ulmus. Celtis, 

 Toxylon, Morus, Sassafras, Acacia, Prosopis, 

 Gleditsia, Xanthoxylum, Melia, Sapindus, 

 Nyssa, Diospyros, Fraxinus and Tecoma. In 

 commenting on this matter the author says : 

 " It is a question whether any tree is wholly 

 immune to attacks from the mistletoe." 

 Much space is given to a discussion of the 

 eradication of the pest. Two plates and sev- 

 eral text illustrations add to the value of the 

 bulletin. 



Professor F. J. Phillips makes a valuable 

 contribution to our knowledge of a peculiar 

 injury to forest trees — namely, that due to 

 hail-storms, in a recent paper — " Hail Injury 

 on Forest Trees " {Trans. Acad. Sci. St. 

 Louis, XIX., 3). By means of photographs 

 the author shows the extent of the injury 

 (often very great) to many kinds of trees. 

 The direct injury is often supplemented by 

 the advent of boring insects and wood-de- 

 stroying fungi. Catalpa suffers the most, 



probably on account of its large leaves and 

 somewhat succulent bark. Osage orange en- 

 dures hail better than any other of the broad- 

 leaved trees. 



PLANT BREEDING 



That the breeding of plants has become a 

 reality may be inferred from the titles of a 

 few recent papers, the contents of which are 

 too technical to be outlined or abstracted 

 here. Thus we have W. J. Spillman's " Ap- 

 plication of Some of the Principles of Hered- 

 ity to Plant Breeding " (Bull. 165, Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, TJ. S. Dept. Agric), covering 

 74 pages, with text, tables, diagrams and a 

 full index. And next — E. M. East's "Dis- 

 tinction between Development and Heredity 

 in Inbreeding" (Am. Nat., 1909), followed 

 by four papers by G. H. Shull, viz., " A 

 Simple Chemical Device to Illustrate Men- 

 delian Inheritance " (Plant World, 1909) ; 

 " The Eesults of Crossing Bursa hursa-pas- 

 toris with Bursa heegeri " (Proc. 7, Interna- 

 tional Zool. Congress) ; " Inheritance of Sex 

 in Lychnis" (Bot. Gaz., 1910); "Color In- 

 heritance in Lychnis dioica L." (Am. Nat., 

 1910). 



GENERAL NOTES 



A YEAR or SO ago Professor E. B. Copeland 

 published as Bull. 24 of the Philippine Bureau 

 of Education a suggestive pamphlet including 

 first, an " Outline of a Tear's Course in Bot- 

 any in the Philippine Secondary Schools," 

 and second, a " Key to the Families of Vas- 

 cular Plants in the Philippine Islands." 

 While especially helpful to the teachers on the 

 islands, it will prove useful to many teachers 

 in the United States. 



Maiden and Betche's " Notes from the Bo- 

 tanic Gardens of Sydney, New South Wales," 

 includes a number of descriptions of new 

 species, and new localities of hitherto known 

 species. Two good plates accompany the 

 paper. 



New parts of Karsten and Schenck's " Vege- 

 tationsbilder " (Gustav Fischer, Jena) in- 

 clude very different types of vegetation. Dr. 

 Eikli, of Zurich, describes and beautifully il- 

 lustrates the vegetation of Danish West 

 Greenland, and F. Seiner, of Graz, does the 



