May 8, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



759 



adequate appropriation be made for that pur- 

 pose. 



Nature states, that the Naples Academy of 

 Physical and Mathematical Sciences offers 

 a prize of 1000 lire to the author of the best 

 memoir on the theory of the invariants of the 

 ternary biquadratic form, preferably in con- 

 nection with the conditions for splitting into 

 lower form. The papers may be written in 

 Italian, Latin or French, and must be sent in 

 on or before June 30, 1904. In addition prizes 

 are offered in connection with the legacy of 

 Professor Luigi Sementini, who in 1847 left 

 the sum of 150 ducats per annum 'to distribute 

 it as a prize for three memoirs on applied 

 chemistry which they shall judge the best, 

 or to award it as a prize to the author of one 

 single memoir containing great utility, or 

 finally to give it as a life pension to the au- 

 thor of a classical discovery useful to sick 

 mankind.' Competitors for this prize are 

 invited to send in their applications, accom- 

 panied by manuscript or printed papers, not 

 later than December 31, 1903. 



Me. Neville-Eolfe, British consul in 

 Naples, refers in a report abstracted in the 

 London Times to the widespread interest now 

 being taken in Italy in the question of re-affor- 

 esting the country. In 1877 about four mil- 

 lions of acres were withdrawn from the opera- 

 tion of the old forest laws, as well as about 

 one million acres in Sicily and Sardinia. The 

 consequence was a reckless destruction of 

 forests ; and now it is generally admitted that 

 the state must step in to save those that are 

 left and to aid in replanting. The question 

 now being discussed is what trees are to be 

 used for the latter purpose. The Italian oak 

 is of little use except for railway sleepers; 

 there is plenty of chestnut all over the country, 

 and pine-trees would grow luxuriantly and 

 prove most useful. The cork-tree, however, 

 appears to be the one which would prove eco- 

 nomically the most valuable, and it has 

 hitherto been almost wholly neglected in Italy. 

 In 1900 the cork exported was valued at only 

 £36,000, and much, no doubt, was used at home. 

 But a few years ago Spain exported wine 

 corks to the value of over a million sterling. 



In Italy about 80,000 hectares of land are 

 under the cork-tree, chiefly in Sicily and 

 Sardinia; in Portugal, Spain and Algeria the 

 areas respectively are 300,000, 250,000 and 

 281,000 hectares. The Calabrian cork forests 

 have been almost wholly destroyed, the trees 

 having been burnt for charcoal, and even 

 Sicily now imports corkwood in considerable 

 quantities. Seventy years ago nearly all the 

 cork imported into England went from Italy. 

 But since then most of the Italian forests have 

 been destroyed for charcoal and to produce 

 potash, and those that remain are being de- 

 vastated for the same purpose; and no one 

 thinks of replanting the ground, which 

 naturally gets washed away owing to the ab- 

 sence of trees. Large forests containing a 

 majority of cork-trees are continually being 

 released from the forests laws, and there is a 

 risk that the production of cork in Italy wiU 

 soon cease. Nothing can replace cork in its 

 manifold use, and now when vast quantities 

 are used in making linoleum and in shipbuild- 

 ing an adequate supply of it is of great eco- 

 nomical importance. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The board of trustees of Stanford Univer- 

 sity held a meeting on April 25, at which the 

 formal transfer of the property of the uni- 

 versity to the trustees was considered. It is 

 understood that the transfer will be made dur- 

 ing the present week. Mrs. Stanford will be 

 elected president of the board of trustees. 



The New Hampshire legislature has voted 

 an appropriation of $20,000 a year for two 

 years to Dartmouth College. 



AiioNG the appropriations made by the state 

 legislature to the University of Missouri there 

 is one of $7,500 for an addition to the new 

 building occupied by botany, entomology and 

 horticulture. The addition will be used for 

 experimental work in botany along physiolog- 

 ical, pathological and ecological lines. 



Mk. Andrew Caknegie has contributed $12,- 

 000 toward the amount needed for the erection 

 of Emerson Hall, the new philosophical build- 

 ing of which Harvard University hopes to lay 

 the corner-stone on May 25, the centennial 

 anniversary of Ealph "Waldo Emerson's birth. 



