December 1, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



723 



of the grasses. A second volume has now ap- 

 peared, bearing the date 1904 on the title 

 page, but with a preface dated April 1, 1905. 

 It is also the joint work of several aiithors, 

 namely, Professor Pammel, C. K. Bell and F. 

 Lamson-Scribner, the two latter of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. This vol- 

 ume is almost entirely systematic, including 

 descriptions (and usually figures) of about 

 two hundred species and varieties that are 

 native to Iowa or are grown more or less com- 

 monly under cultivation. Short chapters on 

 the physiography and geology of Iowa by Dr. 

 H. F. Bain, and the ecological and geograph- 

 ical distribution of Iowa grasses, by Professor 

 Pammel, and a bibliography, close the vohnne. 

 The two volumes miist prove of great value 

 to the farmers of the state, and the second one 

 especially must be helpful to students and 

 others who are interested in the grasses. 



It is unfortunate that the public printer 

 should not have done better by these volumes. 

 Paper, type, proof-reading and binding are 

 poor, and are quite unworthy of the text. The 

 authors as well as the people of the great 

 state of Iowa have a right to something much 

 better. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH PLANTS. 



Year by year, one can see that progress is 

 made in the study of plants and their activ- 

 ities. Instead of learning the systematic 

 classification of a plant, alone, as we used to 

 a generation ago, or making out only its micro- 

 scopic mechanism, as we did later, we are now 

 shown how we may find out what plants and 

 their different organs are doing at different 

 times in their lives. In a suggestive book, 

 ' Experiments with Plants,' Professor Dr. 

 Osterhout, of the University of California, 

 shows teachers how they may ask many ques- 

 tions of plants in such a way as to have them 

 answered by the plants themselves. In ten 

 chapters, the author takes up as many differ- 

 ent subjects as follows : the awakening of the 

 seed, getting established, the work of roots, 

 the work of leaves, the work of stems, the 

 work of flowers, the work of fruits, how plants 

 are influenced by their surroundings, plants 

 which cause decay, fermentation and disease, 

 and making new kinds of plants. By a 



series of simple experiments, usually with 

 simple and often home-made apparatus, the 

 author enables the- student to find out a great 

 many things about plants. More than two 

 hundred and fifty illustrations, make still 

 plainer the very clear directions given for 

 making the experiments, and in both, there 

 is evidence of the author's ingenuity in plan- 

 ning devices for experimental purposes. 



Charles E. Bessey. 

 The Ukiveesity of Nebraska. 



INTERNATIONAL EXPLORATION OF THE 

 NORTH SEA} 



It would be diflicult to estimate in terms 

 suiflciently emphatic the vast, momentous im- 

 portance which attaches to the great inter- 

 national investigations at present being car- 

 ried out in regard to the fisheries of the North 

 Sea and adjacent waters. At a conference of 

 delegates held at Stockholm in 1890 (at the 

 instance of the King of Sweden and Norway) 

 a general plan for instituting inquiries was 

 drawn up, which it was confidently asserted 

 would undoubtedly lead to the attainment of 

 a better and much more extended knowledge 

 of the natural history of fishes and the in- 

 fluences which regulate their movements to 

 and fro. At a second conference held at 

 Christiania in 1901 a program of work was 

 formulated, to which the several governments 

 acceded, and in the summer of 1902 operations 

 for the great international scheme — the ex- 

 ploration of the sea — ^were begun. 



The nations engaged in the investigations 

 conjointly with Great Britain, include Bel- 

 gium, Denmark, Finland, . Germany, Holland, 

 Norway, Sweden and Eussia. Each country, 

 we are told, sends representatives to a central 

 council, which is located in Copenhagen under 

 the presidency of Dr. Walter Herwig, of Han- 

 over, and the vice-presidency of Professor 

 Otto Pettersson, of Stockholm. Every en- 

 deavor has been made to ensure that the in- 

 vestigations are carried out in as thorough a 

 manner as possible. The ground of inquiry 

 extends over a very extended sea area, and in- 

 volves the elucidation and confirmation re- 

 garding various points connected with the 



^ The London Times. 



