December 2, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



759 



economic development has been toward closer 

 relations with Great Britain and away from 

 the United States. Now if reciprocity is 

 wanted it has to be paid for at a higher price. 

 Great Britain is bending her efforts to aid 

 Canada in her ambition for economic inde- 

 pendence of the United States. 



One of the ominous signs of the times is 

 the increasing dependence upon navies as a 

 factor in commercial competition. " There 

 can be no question that naval expansion is the 

 dominant note in world "policy to-day." Here 

 we are brought face to face with the purpose 

 for which this book was written, namely, to 

 rouse America to the realization that her 

 scope of development as a commercial power 

 in the Pacific depends on her attitude toward 

 the Russian policy of territorial expansion over 

 Chinese territory. Russia's ambitions " may 

 be briefly summed up as being chiefly inimical 

 to the United States in that they are essen- 

 tially monopolistic. * * * Russia with her 

 program of territorial expansion, military 

 achievements, closed ports, autocratic govern- 

 ment and non-progressiveness is a menace to 

 the world" (p. 358). 



The assured sovereignty of China seems to 

 be the only basis of permanency to far eastern 

 peace and prosperity (p. 381). The breaking 

 up of China would jeopardize Japan's posi- 

 tion, because it would mean an ascendency of 

 Russia and her sympathizers, Germany and 

 France. In our author's view Russia's ad- 

 vance long since passed the defensible limit 

 where British and American interests are im- 

 paired. These two interests he groups under 

 the term Anglo-Saxon, and asks : 



What course can be suggested which would best 

 serve the interests of Anglo-Saxondom? * * * 

 Were her expansion the legitimate expression of 

 internal growth and progress, as has been that of 

 the United States, it would be unreasonable to 

 adopt a hostile attitude towards it. Even from 

 the point of view of ethics the territory hitherto 

 conquered or annexed by Russia is probably better 

 off under her than under half savage khans. But 

 Russia's expansion is no longer legitimate. She 

 has reached her objective, the Pacific Ocean, and 

 has not paused to develop or organize the vast 

 territories she has occupied; she has in no case 

 laid the foundation of a future of freedom and 



prosperity for the conquered peoples. She has 

 already imposed a cast-iron system and planted 

 military colonies to keep things in order. She 

 has no excuse save her own insatiable ambition 

 and land hunger. 



John Franklin Crowell. 

 Washington, D. C. 



SGIENriFIG JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



In the November number of the Botanical 

 Gazette Edward C. Jeffrey describes a new 

 fossil sequoia from the Auriferous Gravels 

 (Miocene) of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

 He emphasizes his previously expressed view 

 that the sequoias have originated from the 

 Abietinese. — George H. Shull publishes the 

 results of his second season's study of the 

 place-constants for Aster prenanihoides at 

 Clifton, Ohio. This second collection was 

 made in 1903 from the same area that supplied 

 material for a quantitative study in 1900. 

 The bracts, rays and disk-florets were studied 

 quantitatively and the results compared with 

 those of the earlier study. — B. L. Robinson 

 describes ' A New Sheep Poison from Mexico,' 

 which proves to be a new species of Bouchetia. 

 — Elias Nelson publishes three western species 

 of Agropyron. — Conway MacMillan describes 

 some very interesting British Columbian 

 dwarf trees. They grow on the rocks close to 

 the sea but outside the influence of the surf, 

 and represent three species : Picea sifchensis, 

 Tsupa heterophylla and Thuja gigantea. One 

 of them was less than two feet high and was 68 

 years old; another less than a foot high was 

 86 years old ; and the third about a foot high, 

 with a trunk one inch in diameter, was 98 

 years old. — A. C. Life describes some interest- 

 ing results from an injury to Ambrosia, the 

 chief result being that the primordia usually 

 producing stamens and ovules produced 

 vegetative shoots. 



We learn from The British Medical Journal 

 that arrangements have been made with the 

 Syndics of the Cambridge University Press 

 to begin the issue of a Journal of Agricultural 

 Science, under the editorship of Messrs. T. H. 

 Middleton, T. B. Wood, R. H. Biffen, and A. 

 D. Hall, in consultation with other gentlemen. 

 The journal will publish only definitely scien- 



