January 12, 1900.] 



SCIENCE 



75 



The author recognizes the fact that "the ability 

 to identify and name plants is not the object of 

 botanical study, but it is a great assistance in 

 attaining the knowledge which the true student 

 of botany is seeking — an understanding of the 

 laws of life in the vegetable kingdom." He 

 has made it possible by means of keys and easy 

 descriptions for the beginner to obtain some 

 ideas as to how plants are classified, what 

 botanists think as to the relationship of plant 

 groups, and how to proceed in identifying an 

 unknown plant. As far as it goes the book is 

 a modern presentation of taxonomic botany. 

 It deals with seed-plants only. Even the ferns 

 so commonly included in manuals of this kind 

 are not included, while the pupil gets no hint 

 whatever of anything lower in the scale of 

 plant life. This is a mistake, but a very com- 

 mon one, in botanical manuals, and we must 

 perhaps overlook it for the present. It is 

 pleasant to find a modern sequence of families 

 (Engler and Prantl's) and a strictly modern 

 nomenclature. 



A NEW BOTANICAL JOURNAL. 



With the December number the first volume 

 of Bhodora, the new journal devoted to the 

 botany of New England, was completed. The 

 idea of a local botanical journal of high grade 

 was a novelty, and its progress during the year 

 was watched with much interest. Now at the 

 end of its first volume we may look over what 

 it has accomplished and judge as to whether 

 a geographical limit is a wise one to be placed 

 upon the field of a scientific journal. By far 

 the greater number of articles deal with flower- 

 ing plants, and are systematic rather than mor- 

 phological, although the latter are by no means 

 wanting. The ferns and mosses receive scanty 

 notice, while the algse and fungi are the sub- 

 ject of frequent papers and notes. Many of 

 these papers have much more than local inter, 

 est, and might with propriety have appeared in 

 any botanical journal. Of course, there are 

 some ' local notes,' some papers on ' noteworthy 

 plants,' some on ' rare plants,' and some 'addi- 

 tions ' to local floras. There is little if any of 

 that species splitting which is too often the bane 

 of local botany. The editorial announcement 

 of a year ago stated that special attention 



would be given "to such plants as are newly 

 recognized or imperfectly known within our 

 limits, to the more precise determination of 

 plant ranges, to brief revisions of groups in 

 which specific and varietal limits require further 

 definition, to corrections upon current manuals 

 and local floras, to altitudinal distribution, plant 

 associations and ecological problems." ' Ferns, 

 mosses and thallophy tes ' were promised a share 

 of attention. It is to the credit of the manage- 

 ment that the program outlined at the outset 

 has been so well carried out. Rhodora has shown 

 that a geographically limited scientific journal 

 may be successful and useful. 



Charles E. Bessby. 

 The University of Nebraska. 



THE CONFERRING OF UNIVERSITY DEGREES 

 BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



The Chairman of the Senate Committee on 

 the District of Columbia, Mr. McMillan, intro. 

 duced, on January 2d, a bill entitled " An act 

 to authorize the regents of the Smithsonian 

 Institution to confer certain degrees and for 

 other purposes." It provides : 



" That the regents of the Smithsonian be, and 

 they are hereby, authorized to appoint a board 

 of five examiners, who shall, with the approval 

 of the said regents, prepare and publish a 

 schedule of courses of studies preparatory to the 

 degrees of master of arts, master of science, 

 doctor of philosophy and doctor of science. 

 The said examinei'S shall from time to time hold 

 examinations in the City of Washington for the 

 said degrees ; and, on the satisfactory comple- 

 tion by any candidate of the prescribed course 

 of studies for either of the above mentioned 

 degrees, shall recommend such a candidate to 

 the regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 

 such degrees. The said regents are hereby au- 

 thorized to confer, under suitable regulations, 

 the degrees above mentioned and also the hon- 

 orary degree of doctor of laws. Provided, 

 That no person shall be accepted as a candidate 

 for the degree of master of arts or of doctor of 

 philosophy who has not completed a course of 

 study at least equivalent to the course of study 

 required of candidates for corresponding de- 

 grees in the most advanced universities in the 

 United States ; and provided further, That the 



