516 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 482. 



BOTANICAL WORK IN THE PHILIPPINES. 

 Since the American occupation a consider- 

 able amount of botanical work has been accom- 

 plished on the Philippine flora, under the 

 auspices of the insular government, and in 

 the near future, due to the fact that the ap- 

 pointment of an assistant botanist and two 

 collectors was authorized by the civil com- 

 mission some time ago, the work will be greatly 

 increased. 



Shortly after the organization of the For- 

 estry Bureau in May, 1900, some botanical 

 work was undertaken by Eegino Garcia, who 

 had been an assistant in the Spanish Forestry 

 Bureau. Little work, however, of lasting 

 value was accomplished in this office. In 

 April, 1902, the Bureau of Agriculture was 

 organized, and Elmer D. Merrill was ap- 

 pointed botanist. In July, 1902, he was also 

 made botanist to the Forestry Bureau, while 

 in July, 1903, he was transferred to the Bureau 

 of Government Laboratories, when an assist- 

 ant and two collectors were authorized. The 

 object in transferring the work to the Govern- 

 ment Laboratories was to get all work of a 

 similar nature into one institution, and or- 

 ganize a thoroughly equipped botanical labo- 

 ratory. In November, 1903, Dr. E. B. Cope- 

 land was appointed assistant botanist, and Mr. 

 A. D. E. Elmer one of the collectors, the sec- 

 ond collector not having as yet been appointed. 

 In the past two years under Mr. Merrill's 

 direction a herbarium, exceeding 8,000 sheets, 

 has been formed and for a large part identified, 

 a well-equipped botanical library has been es- 

 tablished and the following publications have 

 been issued : ' Botanical Work in the Philip- 

 pines,' ' Report on Investigations made in 

 Java in the Year 1902,' ' A Dictionary of the 

 Plant Names of the Philippines,' ' New or 

 Noteworthy Philippine Plants,' ' The Amer- 

 ican Element in the Philippine Flora.' The 

 first article was published as a bulletin from 

 the Bureau of Agriculture, the second as a 

 bulletin from the Forestry Bureau, and the 

 last three as bulletins from the Bureau of 

 Government Laboratories. 



At the present time, in addition to the work 

 on the Philippine flora being prosecuted under 

 the auspices of the Philippine government, 



Mr. E. S. Williams is collecting in Luzon for 

 the New York Botanical Garden and Dr. H. 

 Hallier is collecting in Mindanao for the 

 Hamburg Museum. A considerable amount 

 of botanical material was secured by various 

 employees of the Philippine Exposition Board, 

 this material, with the exception of one set 

 retained in the herbarium of the Bureau of 

 Government Laboratories in Manila, having 

 all been forwarded to St. Louis. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 M. Henri Becquerel, professor of physics 

 at the Paris Ecole Polytechnique, has been 

 elected a correspondent of the Berlin Acad- 

 emy of Sciences. 



The University of Chicago has celebrated 

 this week its fiftieth convocation. It has 

 given its LL.D. to five German professors, in- 

 cluding Professor Paul Ehrlich, director of 

 the Eoyal Prussian Institute of Experimental 

 Therapeutics at Frankfort-on-the-Main. 



The Senate of the University of Glasgow 

 has resolved to confer its Doctorate of Laws 

 on Mr. G. F. Deacon, civil engineer, of Lon- 

 don; on Mr. J. H. Muirhead, professor of 

 mental and moral philosophy in the Univer- 

 sity of Birmingham; on Dr. W. Stirling, 

 Brackenbury professor of physiology and his- 

 tology at Owens College, University of Man- 

 chester, and on Sir William Taylor, M.D., 

 director-general of the army medical service. 



The Turin Academy of Science has 

 awarded one half of the Vallauri prize of 

 $6,000 to Professor Giovanni Battista Grassi, 

 of Rome, in recognition of the value of his 

 researches on malaria. 



Dr. George B. Parkin, representing the 

 trustees of the will of the late Cecil Rhodes, 

 sailed for New York on March 16 to assist 

 in the holding of examinations in the United 

 States and Canada for the Rhodes scholar- 

 ships at Oxford. 



Dr. R. O. E. Davis, instructor in chem- 

 istry in the University of North Carolina, 

 having been granted a year's leave of absence, 

 sails on April 16 for work in the laboratories 

 of Professors Ostwald and van't Hoff. 



