August 30, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



333 



glory. A chapter ou ' The Fantasies of Ferns ' 

 is unequaled anywhere in fern literature. Not 

 only is the text suited to the person whose mind 

 ' is of the kindergarten order, that needs nice 

 interesting object lessons,' but it will afford real 

 pleasure and some instruction to the professional 

 pteridologist, unless he has lost all sentiment, 

 and love of the beautiful. It will prove a strong 

 corrective for the mania which uproots every 

 pretty, green thing. After reading it none but 

 a confirmed vandal would wantonly disturb a 

 colony of these beautiful plants. 



Mrs. Wright's book may easily prepare the 

 amateur for a more particular study of ferns, as 

 suggested in Willard N. Clute's ' Our Ferns in 

 their Haunts' (Frederick A. Stokes Co., New 

 York). This is in fact a popular manual of 

 the ferns of North America north of the Gulf 

 States and east of the Eocky Mountains, and by 

 the aid of an easy non-technical text, good cuts, 

 and many ' half-tone ' and colored plates, the 

 subject is made so plain that no one need be 

 without some knowledge of the ferns. It should 

 find a place in the library of every amateur 

 botanist, and it .will do no harm to the profes- 

 sional botanist, who may well give it room on 

 his shelves with other helpful books. 



Why should not such books as these encour- 

 age those organizations which have for their 

 object the cultivation of a love of Nature, and 

 the protection of the native species ? The Lin- 

 naean Fern Chapter of the Agassiz Association, 

 which has recently issued its Eighth Aunual Ee- 

 port (Miss Margaret Slossen, Secretary, An- 

 dover, Mass.) is such an organization of mostly 

 amateur students of ferns. What a help such a 

 society may become to the thousands of people 

 who, away from herbaria and museums, desire 

 to keep in touch with the work of others with 

 like tastes. What an inspiration must come 

 'from membership in an organization whose 

 members are scattered over the territory from 

 Maine to California, and Canada to Florida and 

 Texas, with one in England and another in far- 

 away New Zealand. 



A word may be said here in praise of a new 

 society in Boston and its suburbs, named the 

 'Society for the Protection of Native Plants.' 

 Its object is ' to check the wholesale destruction 

 to which many of our native plants are ex- 



posed.' Every botanist will wish this society 

 the greatest success. Its secretary is Miss Maria 

 E. Carter, Curator of the Herbarium of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History. The urgent 

 need of such a society is apparent not only in 

 the densely populated Eastern States, but fully 

 as much in the western summer resorts, where 

 the hand of the vandal has already extermin- 

 ated some species. 



Charles E. Bessey. 

 University of Nebraska. 



THE PRESERVATION OF COLORADO CLIFF 

 D WELLING8. 

 The Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association is 

 endeavoring without aid from the legislature to 

 preserve the ruins which lie on the Mesa Verde, 

 a tableland twenty miles long by eight miles 

 wide, in the southwest corner of Colorado. 

 There are from three hundred to four hundred 

 cliff dwellings including the noted 'Cliff Pal- 

 ace ' on this mesa. These are all in the Ute 

 Indian reservation and consequently the state 

 or national government can not control the 

 ruins. A ten years' lease has been made by the 

 Association direct with the Ute Chiefs, by means 

 of which control is had of the Mesa. The Sec- 

 retary of the Interior having ratified the lease, 

 the Association is now in charge of the ruins, 

 and will open a toll road to them. The money 

 received as toll will, however, be only part of 

 the sum paid to the Indians as rent. The ruins 

 will be kept from weathering and from the 

 depredations of 'relic hunters.' 



Harlan I. Smith. 



PRESENTATION BEFORE THE FACULTY OF 

 CANDIDATES FOR THE DOCTORATE 

 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENN- 

 SYLVANIA. 



The University of Pennsylvania inaugurated 

 this year what seems to be in many respects an 

 excellent method of recommending candidates 

 for the degi-ee of Doctor of Philosophy. The 

 usual method, borrowed from the German uni- 

 versities, of examining candidates before the 

 faculty or letting them defend their theses be- 

 fore the faculty is not altogether suited to ex- 

 isting conditions. In Germany it is chiefly a 

 form and appears to be falling into disuse. The 



