112 



demonstrate, as these authors had concluded, the synthesis of 

 carbon dioxide and water. 



Warner and Wager both cautiously raise the question whether 

 in green leaves a photo-decomposition of chlorophyll gives rise 

 to formaldehyde which is then polymerized into sugars, instead 

 of there being a direct synthesis of carbon dioxide and water into 

 formaldehyde. 



It is to be noted that a number of the experiments described 

 seem suitable as laboratory exercises and lecture demonstrations. 



W. G. M. 



NEWS ITEMS. 



The Board of Managers and the Women's Auxiliary of the 

 New York Botanical Garden held a reception and spring inspec- 

 tion of the grounds, buildings and collections on the afternoon 

 of Thursday, May 7, from three until six o'clock. Tea was 

 served in the museum building at 5.20 P.M. About 250 guests 

 motored through the grounds and speeches were made by Dr. 

 W. Gilman Thompson, one of the committee of the board of 

 managers, and by the director, Dr. N. L. Britton. 



"After a lapse of over twenty-one years a botanic garden at 

 the Cape is once again an established fact. It is described by the 

 Kew Bulletin as 'thoroughly worthy of a United South Africa.' 

 The choice of the Kirstenbosch estate as the site for the National 

 Botanic Garden was a particularly happy one, and there can be 

 no doubt that the selection of this site for the purpose would 

 have met with the approval of Cecil Rhodes himself. The 

 existence of so suitable a site for the garden as is this portion of 

 the Rhodes estate would, however, have been of little value but 

 for the farsightedness of General Botha and his government, in 

 consequence of which the scheme has passed from the region of 

 proposition and discussion into the realm of fact. The control 

 of the garden is to be exercised by a board of five trustees, of 

 whom three are nominated by the Government, one by the Cor- 

 poration of Capetown, and one by the Botanical Society. The 



