716 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. A^OL. I. No. 26. 



moid curve, the halves of which are fi-om 

 one-half to three-foiirths of a mile in diam- 

 ■eter. The rock neck of land between the 

 two ends of the closer curve is less than a 

 hundred j^ards in width and rises about 

 seventy feet above the stream. 



Along Platte, Little Platte, Grant and 

 Pecatonica rivers, larger streams than Fever 

 river, the meanders are slightly larger on 

 the average than along the smaller streams. 

 Both open and close curves occur. Eock 

 salients between 100 and 200 feet high pro- 

 ject into the bow of each meander. Almost 

 as complete a series of meander types can 

 be found among the curves of the rock val- 

 leys of these rivers as along the broad 

 flood-plains of other streams. Indeed, the 

 small meanders of these rivers in their pres- 

 ent flood-plains can readily be duplicated 

 by the wider curves of the rock valley. 

 There can be no reasonable doubt but that 

 the meanders of these valleys are an in- 

 heritance from meanders developed on broad 

 flood-plains in a previous cycle of erosion. 

 So far as could be made out, these mean- 

 ders are not due to difference in hardness 

 ■or structure of the rocks of the region. 

 The limestone does not present sufficiently 

 m^arked differences of structure to account 

 for these curves upon a theory of readjust- 

 ment of courses due to the contrasts be- 

 tween hard and soft beds. Whatever dif- 

 ferences exist are not distinctly such as to 

 miodify the courses of rivers, particularly 

 in a manner such as to resemble so closely 

 flood-plain meanders. Nor does it seem to 

 be admissible to suppose that these curves 

 are the perpetuation of meandering courses 

 taken when the land first emerged from the 

 sea bottom. Such a supposition presup- 

 poses too constant and stable a relationship, 

 through an enormous lapse of time be- 

 tween all the forces which control erosion 

 and determine the position of streams. 



The sinuosities of these meanders may 

 have been somewhat changed since the ele- 



vation of the peneplain. In places the in- 

 creased velocity may have straightened the 

 curves to some extent. In other instances 

 the meanders have been somewhat in- 

 creased. Such seems to have been the case 

 near Benton, where the stream is now under- 

 cutting the narrow strip of land sei)arating 

 two parts of the curve. If this process con- 

 tinues, a cut-ofi" will result. 



In comparison with the Osage river, these 

 streams are small and their meanders in- 

 significant. But apart from size, the analogy 

 between them is complete. Thej' must be 

 added to the growing list of sti-eams known 

 to be persisting in habits acquired under 

 conditions which have long since disap- 

 peared. Henry B. Kummel. 



The Univeesity of Chicago. 



COBBESPONDENCE. 

 MISSOURI ROTANICAL GARDEN. 



The attention of botanists is called to the 

 facilities afforded for research at the Mis- 

 souri Botanical Garden. In establishing 

 and endowing the Garden, its founder, 

 Henry Shaw, desired not onlj^ to afford the 

 general public pleasure, and information 

 concerning decorative plants and their best 

 use, and to provide for beginners the means 

 of obtaining good ti-aining in botany and 

 horticulture, but also to provide facilities 

 for advanced research in botanj' and cog- 

 nate sciences. For this purpose, additions 

 are being made constantly to the number 

 of species cultivated in the gi-ounds and 

 plant houses, and to the library and her- 

 barium, and, as rapidly as it can be utilized, 

 it is proposed to secure apparatus for work 

 in vegetable physiology, etc., the policy 

 being to secure a good general equipment in 

 all Unes of pui-e and applied botany, and to 

 make this equipment as complete as pos- 

 sible for anj' special subject on which ori- 

 ginal work is undertaken by competent 

 students. 



A very large number of species, both 



