10 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1097 



enship of Montana, Hillman of Nevada, 

 Wooton of New Mexico and Bogue of Ok- 

 lahoma. 



Those who have made studies or tests of 

 the trees and shrubs, both native and in- 

 troduced, include Roberts of Kansas, Gar- 

 man of Kentucky, Beal of Michigan, Green 

 of Minnesota, Bessey of Nebraska, Halsted 

 of New Jersey, Kennedy of Nevada, Wooton 

 of New Mexico, Thornber of "Washington, 

 Murrill of New York, Burns and Jones 

 (with his assistants), of Vermont, and 

 Blakeslee of Connecticut. 



Of course the government has done much 

 work along these systematic lines, especially 

 with the western flora, beginning with the 

 publications of Yasey and continued by 

 those of Coulter, CoviUe, Rose, Britton, 

 Piper, and others. This work has now 

 largely returned to its original home in the 

 Smithsonian Institution, leaving only the 

 more practical studies to the Department 

 of Agriculture. 



Starting with Vasey's economic work 

 with the grasses, there have been many in- 

 vestigations to determine the most valuable 

 hay, meadow and range grasses, and espe- 

 cially the conditions affecting the last. 

 These have involved detailed studies of 

 classification, distribution, habits of growth, 

 environment, and chemical composition. 

 Somewhat similar studies have been made 

 with legumes and certain forage cacti. 

 Among the investigators concerned with 

 this work may be mentioned F. Lampson- 

 Scribner, Hitchcock, Nelson, Pammel, Wil- 

 liams, Kennedy, Griffiths, Piper, Wooton, 

 and Thornber. 



Weeds, especially their identification, na- 

 ture and methods of eradication, have been 

 another means of keeping botanists busy, 

 more especially in the earlier days. Par- 

 ticularly bad pests, such as the Canada and 

 Russian thistles, tumbleweeds, mustards, 

 couch grass and orange hawlnveed, have 



received especial study. General and spe- 

 cial consideration of the weed problem early 

 received attention from Dewey of the de- 

 partment, MiHspaugh of West Virginia, 

 Halsted of New Jersey, and Harvey of 

 Maine. Special articles on particular weeds 

 or lists of weeds in their respective states, 

 have been published by botanists too nu- 

 merous to mention. At first attempts were 

 made to have laws passed regulating weed 

 pests, but there has been little activity along 

 this line in recent years, and such laws as 

 exist are rarely enforced. 



Seed testing has also had its share of at- 

 tention from the station and government 

 botanists. This work has included methods 

 of identification, kinds of impurities and 

 adulteration, and tests for germination. 

 Laws have been enacted in several of the 

 states relating to the sale and testing of 

 seeds. The work, while important, has never 

 received quite the detailed attention here 

 that has been given to it in some of the 

 European countries. Besides the publica- 

 tions of the Department of Agriculture, nu- 

 merous others have been issued by the sta- 

 tions at Maine, Connecticut, North Caro- 

 lina, New York, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, 

 Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and some 

 other states. 



Poisonous plants have claimed especial 

 care from Chestnut, Wilcox and Pammel, 

 with contributions from such others as 

 Blankenship, Bessey and Halsted. Drug 

 plants have been dealt with by True and 

 his associates. 



Physiological and chemical studies of 

 plants have not had so much attention from 

 botanists as some other lines of investiga- 

 tion, yet good work has been accomplished 

 by Loew, Swingle, True, Alsberg, Kearney, 

 Briggs, Schantz, and others of the depart- 

 ment. Much of this work relates to soil 

 moisture and soil solutions both favorable 

 and detrimental to plant growth. Various 



