444 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 509. 



BOTASY AT THE CUBAN EXPERIMENT 

 STATION. 



The organization of the botanical work at 

 the Estacion Central Agronomica de Cuba 

 is now far enough advanced to justify a brief 

 account of our facilities aiid plans for future 

 work. At least three of the departments of 

 the station will be of interest to botanists. 

 The horticultural department is under the 

 charge of Professor C. F. Austin, late of the 

 Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 with E. W. Halstead, of New Mexico, as as- 

 sistant. Among the interesting lines of work 

 begun by this department may be mentioned 

 the trial of a large line of temperate fruits, 

 vegetables and ornamentals in order to note 

 their behavior under tropical conditions and 

 to determine which among them can be profit- 

 ably grown in Cuba. The native Cuban 

 varieties will also be collected and grown for 

 the purpose of comparative studies and to 

 furnish the basis for the selection of improved 

 strains. Attention will be given to the intro- 

 duction of promising novelties from other 

 tropical coimtries with a view to building up 

 a living collection of as many as possible of 

 the economic plants that will thrive under the 

 conditions prevailing at this place. This de- 

 partment too will be charged with the care of 

 the living collections of Cuban plants that 

 are of botanical interest only. It is hoped in 

 the course of time to have living specimens of 

 many of the more interesting native plants. 

 An abundance of land is available for these 

 purposes, and propagating sheds, cheese-cloth 

 tents and other appliances are being provided. 



The department of vegetable pathology is of 

 course largely botanical, though as here con- 

 stituted it includes economic entomology. It 

 is in charge of Dr. Mel T. Cook, of Indiana, 

 with Mr. W. T. Home, of Nebraska, as as- 

 sistant. The department is provided with 

 a roomy laboratory which is to be shared by 

 the bacteriologist of the animal industry de- 

 partment. It is equipped with the necessary 

 apparatus for rearing and studying disease- 

 producing organisms of all kinds, whether 

 animal or vegetable, including the usual list 

 of glassware, sterilizers, incubators, micro- 



tomes and microscopes, besides a complete 

 Zeiss micro-photographic outfit. 



The botanical department proper is in 

 charge of Professor C. F. Baker, of Pomona 

 College, California, with Mr. Percy Wilson, 

 of the New York Botanical Garden, as as- 

 sistant. It is provided with an abundance of 

 room for laboratory and museum purposes. 

 The furnishings include herbarium cases of 

 native hard-woods. The library already con- 

 tains many of the more important general 

 works, and a special effort is being made to 

 get together as complete a collection as pos- 

 sible of books relating to tropical American 

 botany. The private libraries of Professor 

 Baker and of the writer are also on deposit 

 and are accessible. These include several 

 thousand additional titles. Through the gen- 

 erosity of the New Tork Botanical Garden 

 and the purchase of Mr. Heller's private col- 

 lection of West Indian plants, the herbarium 

 already comprises several thousand mounted 

 sheets of West Indian plants that have been 

 determined at the leading herbaria. Accord- 

 ing to arrangements with Professor Baker, his 

 private herbarium containing over a hundred 

 thousand specimens is deposited at the station 

 and is available for study. This collection is 

 notably rich in tropical American plants con- 

 taining more or less complete sets of the col- 

 lections of Sentenis and Heller in Porto Rico; 

 Otto in Trinidad and Cuba:; Ehrenberg, Prin- 

 gle, Schiede, Seler and Purpus in Mexico; 

 Brandegee in Lower California; Baker in 

 Nicaragua; Moritz in Colombia; Schomburgh 

 in Guiana, and Sello in Brazil. Work in col- 

 lecting the local flora has been actively pushed 

 since the first of July, and much valuable ma- 

 terial has already been secured. Plans are 

 being matured for extending this work to 

 other parts of the island in the near future. 

 Particular attention will, of course, be given 

 to all questions connected with economic bot- 

 any, including forestry problems, study of the 

 native grasses and legumes and of troublesome 

 weeds, and the gathering together for the liv- 

 ing collections of native medicinal plants or 

 those yielding fibers, resins, gums or other 

 possible commercial products. At all times, 

 however, the work will be directed towards a 



