Apeil 3,1903.] 



BCIENCli. 



553 



of Washington, Georgia, and bears the im- 

 print of the American Book Company. As 

 stated by the author, the book ' aims to lead 

 the pupil to Nature for the objects of each 

 lesson, and to provide that the proper ma- 

 terial shall always be available by so arrang- 

 ing the lessons that each subject will be taken 

 up at just the time of the year when the ma- 

 terial for it is most abundant.' The book 

 thus assumes that the work is to begin in 

 September, and continue the whole year, 

 which is quite right. The pupil first takes 

 up the leaf and its uses, in which such sub- 

 jects as transpiration, respiration, the parts of 

 the leaf, leaf arrangement, leaf adjustment 

 and transformation of leaves are studied. He 

 next studies fruits, under the topics, fleshy, 

 dry, dehiscent and aggregate fruits, and this 

 is followed by studies of seeds and seedlings, 

 where he learns about monocotyledons and 

 dicotyledons, the forms, growth and germina- 

 tion of seeds, etc. In like manner he studies 

 roots, and underground stems, the proper stem, 

 buds, branches and flowers. All of this takes 

 236 of the 300 pages of the book. Then we 

 have a short chapter (14 pages) on ecology, 

 followed by 36 pages devoted to the lower 

 plants. The appendix contains a most useful 

 list of books for reference, and the index ap- 

 pears to be satisfactory. While it emphasizes 

 too much the higher forms of plants at the 

 expense of the lower, reminding us at once of 

 the old Gray's ' Lessons in Botany,' which it 

 is evidently intended to replace in the south- 

 ern states, it is perhaps as advanced a book 

 as can be used successfully in the region for 

 which it was written. The compound micro- 

 scope is evidently a thing almost undreamed 

 of in the schools for which it is intended, 

 and so there is nothing else to be done but 

 to send the youngsters into the fields for their 

 laboratory work. Like the preceding book, 

 this one attempts too much, but the fault is 

 not quite so great here as there. 



All in all, the two books are creditable addi- 

 tions to the already long list of American text- 

 books of botany. When they have been tried 

 by some years of practical use in the schools 

 they can be so revised as to improve them 

 along the lines suggested above. In the mean- 



time they will be helpful to many teachers in 

 the secondary schools of the country. 



PLANT PATHOLOGY IN THE COLLEGES. 



In the ' Proceedings '. of the Sixteenth An- 

 nual Convention of the Association of Agri- 

 cultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, 

 held at Atlanta, Ga., October Y-9, 1902, Pro- 

 fessor Wilcox, of Alabama, makes some lively 

 criticisms of botanical teaching in the col- 

 leges and universities of the country. His 

 remarks are of course mainly directed to- 

 wards the agricultural colleges, but they ap- 

 ply with equal force to the larger institutions. 

 In but few of the colleges is there any attempt 

 to teach plant physiology, and where it is en- 

 tered as one of the botanical courses Professor 

 Wilcox shows that it is often not physiology 

 at all that is given. Pathology as a subject 

 for the study of the college student is almost 

 unknown even in the agricultural colleges. 

 He says " the situation respecting the teach- 

 ing of plant pathology is even more serious 

 and non-effective than that of physiology. 

 Substitution of an entirely different subject 

 from real pathology seems to be the rule 

 rather than the exception in the teaching of 

 this subject." The difficulty which faces the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry in the United 

 States Department of Agriculture every time 

 an additional plant pathologist is wanted is 

 an indication of the truth of the charge 

 brought against the colleges by Professor 

 Wilcox. 



A DISEASE OP THE WHITE ASH. 



Dr. Hermann von Schrenk, of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, in charge 

 of the Mississippi Valley Laboratory at St. 

 Louis, has issued a bulletin describing a dis- 

 ease of the white ash caused by the fungus 

 Polyporus fraxinophilus. The disease is prev- 

 alent in the Mississippi valley, and is partic- 

 ularly severe in Missouri, Kansas and 

 Nebraska, where this tree reaches its western 

 limit. The disease, which has been named 

 the ' white rot,' changes the hard wood of the 

 tree into a soft, pulpy, yellowish mass, making 

 it unfit for lumber purposes, and bringing 

 about the early death and overthrow of the 

 tree. Accordingly, in regions where this 



