Decembee 2, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



805 



nation handed over to the federal government 

 some of the most fruitful sources of revenue. 

 It left with the states some of the heaviest 

 burdens of expenditure. The time has come 

 when a readjustment in this respect should be 

 brought about. Education should be made in 

 form, what it is in reality, a national func- 

 tion. It should be placed by the side of the 

 army and the navy, and internal improve- 

 ments and federal justice as one of the great 

 and fundamental functions of the American 

 people finding its expression in every de- 

 partment of our national life; from the rural 

 district of our remotest states to the federal 

 government at Washington. 



Such a policy means federal appropriation 

 on a large scale for the development of na- 

 tional education. It would naturally end in 

 a secretary of education who, as a member of 

 the cabinet, should represent in a concrete 

 form the beginning of a new and larger policy 

 calculated to bring about new and larger re- 

 sults in the educational field. 



We have done much as a nation to help de- 

 velop our material resources. We have done 

 little to help develop our intellectual resources 

 which, after all, underlie and determine the 

 possible development of our material re- 

 sources. 



Our school system should reach every child 

 in the nation with effective elementary teach- 

 ing. It should offer elementary technical 

 training for vocation to every child. It 

 should offer the advantages of high school, 

 i. e., secondary, education to all children who 

 may be able intellectually to profit by it. It 

 should bring to all the youth of a country 

 who desire it the chance to train themselves 

 scientifically for their future vocations. The 

 returns for such expenditure would exceed by 

 far all returns thus far made upon invest- 

 ments in internal improvement of a material 

 sort. If the nation would give its attention 

 earnestly to the matter of establishing such a 

 school system, as should in every section of 

 the country find out the natural abilities of 

 its children and then assist in developing 

 them to the highest possible degree of trained 

 efiiciency, an era of national expansion, na- 



tional development, national influence, of in- 

 crease of national wealth, would dawn upon 

 us such as the world has not thus far 

 dreamed of. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



OCCURRENCE OF THE ^CIDIAL STAGES OF WILLOW 

 AND POPLAR RUSTS IN NATURE 



The writers have frequently collected the 

 teulotosporic stages of the rusts, Uredo 

 (M elampsora) higelowii (Thiim) Arth., on 

 species of Salix and U. (Melampsora) me- 

 dusae (Thiim) Arth., on species of Populus, 

 in the vicinity of Ithaca, N. Y. Knowing 

 that the tecidial stage should be foupd on 

 species of Larix, frequent search has been 

 made for this stage on the larch trees on the 

 Cornell campus. One tree in particular, 

 which grew in close proximity to a badly 

 rusted willow tree, was watched through sev- 

 eral seasons, but the secidia were never 

 found. On May 23, 1910, however, Mr. W. 

 H. Kankin, a graduate student in the depart- 

 ment, found a tree of Larix decidua on the 

 campus, which appeared decidedly yellow 

 from an extreme infection of the Melamp- 

 sora. Eecognizing the fungus, we went to 

 the tree and found growing with interlocking 

 branches, a tree of Salix cordata. Examina- 

 tion of the fallen willow leaves of the previous 

 year showed an abundance of the teleuto- 

 sporic crusts. During the past summer the 

 tree has been largely defoliated by the ex- 

 treme attack of the Uredo stage. Teleuto- 

 spores have also developed again in abundance. 

 A few days later. May 28, we were collecting 

 in a swamp (Michigan Hollow) six miles 

 south of Ithaca, and again found a larch tree 

 {L. laracina) attacked by an tecidial stage of 

 a rust. Search was at once made for willow 

 trees and a clump located at some distance. 

 Careful examination of fallen leaves failed 

 to reveal the presence of teleutosporic crusts. 

 We then turned our attention to some trees of 

 Populus deltoides in the vicinity and here we 

 found teleutosporic crusts on the fallen 

 leaves. 



Specimens of all of the collections were 

 sent to Mr. F. D. Kern, Lafayette, Ind., who 



