306 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 818 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



.', THE REFORM OF THE CALENDAR 



To THE Editor of Science : The brief article 

 in the July 29 number of Science by Professor 

 Eeininghaus on reform of the calendar is op- 

 portune, and it is hoped that action will soon 

 be taken for the appointment of an interna- 

 tional committee who will give us a calendar 

 well shorn of the many disadvantages of the 

 present one. 



In the year 1899 Moses B. Cotsworth, of 

 Tork, England, had in type the main propo- 

 sitions for, and in 1902 he published in full, 

 " The Eational Almanac " in a narrow octavo 

 volume of 471 pages. This is an interesting 

 and worthy book. In brief, its propositions 

 are as follows: 



Without disturbing the commonly accepted 

 Gregorian Calendar or lengths of years, the 

 advantages of the proposed permanent al- 

 manac could be realized by three simple steps, 

 viz: 



1. Erom Christmas Day, 1916, cease naming 

 this day by any week-day name, and merely 

 call it Christmas Day, which could thus be 

 set apart as the extra Sunday to permanently 

 combine the week-end holiday with Christmas, 

 thus getting rid of the troublesome and un- 

 business-like changing of week-day names for 

 dates throughout future years. By naming 

 Leap-year Day Leap Day, and as a public 

 holiday without any week-day name, justice 

 would be done to salaried servants, whilst 

 maintaining fixed day names for each date. 



2. Let Easter, Whitsuntide and other mov- 

 able festivals be fixed (as Christmas is) to 

 always fall on the fixed dates to be arranged 

 for the year 1916 that wiU best suit the con- 

 venience, welfare and pleasure of the people. 

 Easter could thus be permanently fixed in 

 May as one of our longest open-air public 

 holidays. 



3. Divide the fifty-two weeks of the year 

 into thirteen months of four weeks each, by 

 inserting a mid-summer month to be called 

 Sol. 



Please give us an editorial on this subject. 



and the desirability of an international com- 

 mittee. Charles E. Slocdm 

 Defiance, Ohio 



occurrence of mistletoe (phoradendron 

 flavescens) on prunus simoni 



The writer recently found a number of 

 Simoni plums at Newcastle, Cal., seriously 

 parasitized by the yellow mistletoe, Phora- 

 dendron flavescens Nutt., which had infested 

 the bodies and framework of these trees in 

 much the same way as it is known to attack 

 the buckeye {^sculus calif ornica). It was 

 found that the mistletoe reproduced vegeta- 

 tively, the haustoria spreading in the bark and 

 giving rise, by buds, to numerous plants which 

 produced a very twiggy appearance. 



It is probable that the parasitism of this 

 species of mistletoe on Prunus simoni has 

 been previously reported, but the writer has 

 not seen any reference to it. 



P. J. O'Gaea 



U. S. Depaetment of Agbicultuke 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 The Volcanoes of Eilauea and Mauna Loa on 

 the Island of Hawaii; their variously re- 

 corded history to the present time. By 

 William T. Brigham, A.M., Sc.D. (Colum- 

 bia). From the Memoirs of the Bernice 

 Pauahi Bishop Museum, Vol. II., No. 4, 4to, 

 pp. vii -|- 222, 143 illustrations in the text ; 

 pis. XL.-LXVII. Honolulu, H. I., Bishop 

 Museum Press. 1909. 



In 1866 Mr. Brigham published in the 

 quarto memoirs of the Boston Society of Nat- 

 ural History, Vol. I., parts 3 and 4, " Notes on 

 the Volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands," and 

 in 1869 in the same memoirs, " Notes on the 

 Eruption of the Hawaiian Volcanoes, 1868," 

 amounting to 156 pages, 5 plates and 50 wood 

 cuts. The present volume is a reprint of the 

 " Notes " with certain omissions, emendations 

 and additions, continuing the history to 1909, 

 based upon original observations and the opin- 

 ions of various visitors, written in the record 

 books of the Volcano House. It is defined as 

 a " connected story of the activities of the 

 Hawaiian volcanoes in historic times " as free 



