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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 812 



render the service, is a part of the new 

 educational creed. This conception of the 

 responsibility of state institutions has led 

 to an especially wide-reaching organiza- 

 tion for extension teaching in certain 

 states, notably Wisconsin, Nebraska, Texas, 

 Minnesota and some others. 



It has been seen that the principles 

 underlj'ing iiniversity extension are as old 

 as the oldest educational institutions and 

 that many features of the work in its pres- 

 ent development are merely adaptations of 

 forms introdiTced in the past. A super- 

 ficial view of these facts may provoke 

 some degree of discouragement in the be- 

 liever in university extension as a perma- 

 nent partial solution of the American 

 problem of further education for the 

 masses. It is my desire to point out 

 wherein modifications in the present forms 

 would seem to promise remedies for the 

 defects of earlier experiments and why, 

 therefore, we may believe that in America 

 as in England, new applications of tried 

 methods will succeed where old ones were 

 ineffective. 



THE BOTANICAL CONGRESS AT BRUSSELS 

 The third International Botanical Con- 

 gress was held at Brussels, Belgium, May 

 14-22, 1910. Saturday, the fourteenth, was 

 the day for registration. On Sunday, the fif- 

 teenth, the members of the congress assisted 

 at a session of the Royal Botanical Society 

 of Belgium, held in the " dome " of the large 

 building connected with the Jardin Botan- 

 ique, at which several interesting papers were 

 presented by members of the society. Two 

 general sessions of the congress were held in 

 the same room ; the opening session Monday 

 morning, the sixteenth, and the closing on 

 Sunday, the twenty-second. No regular ses- 

 sions of the congress were held in the eve- 

 ning, but during the week several interesting 

 papers on phytogeographical subjects, eco- 

 nomic botany, etc., were given in the evening. 

 Of the three sections into which the con- 



gress was divided for the special work of the 

 week, perhaps the most important was the 

 " Section on Nomenclature." The meetings 

 of this section were held on the exposition 

 grounds in Festival Hall. 



As is well known, the Vienna Congress in 

 1905 selected Linnseus's " Species Plantar- 

 um," 1753, as the starting point for the nom- 

 enclature of the seed plants (Spermatophytes) 

 and vascular cryptogams (Pteridopliytes). It 

 also established the general principles and 

 codified the rules which form the rules of 

 nomenclature for plants. In dealing with the 

 " cellular cryptogams " certain problems were 

 presented which the Vienna Congress decided 

 should have special consideration, viz., the 

 question of different, later starting points for 

 the nomenclature of different groups of the 

 " cellular cryptogams," and the problems con- 

 nected with the nomenclature of the fungi 

 possessing a pleomorphic life cycle. 



As to the starting point for the nomencla- 

 ture of plants it is well known that there 

 were two opinions, as follows : 



1. That there should be a single date recog- 

 nized for the beginning of the nomenclature 

 of all plants. This opinion was based on the 

 principle of uniformity in time or date as the 

 starting point. 



2. That there might be several different 

 (multiple) dates or starting points for the 

 nomenclature of different groups. This 

 opinion was based on the principle that uni- 

 formity in the selection of the earliest com- 

 prehensive worh treating a group, large or 

 small, in a somewhat modern sense, was of 

 more importance than the principle of uni- 

 formity of date. Therefore, the Vienna Con- 

 gress wisely decided to refer the consideration 

 of the nomenclature of the " cellular crypto- 

 gams " to the Brussels Congress in 1910 in 

 order that these problems might be studied 

 in the meantime. 



Since it will be several months before the 

 complete proceedings of the Brussels Con- 

 gress can be published, we present here, for 

 the benefit of American botanists, a brief 

 statement of the most important legislation 

 enacted by the Section on Nomenclature. 



