128 



Mr. Alfred Akerman, of the Yale Forest School, has been 

 appointed to the newly created office of state forester of Massa- 

 chusetts, the appointment dating from August i. 



Part II of Dr. A. J. Grout's " Mosses with Hand-lens and 

 Microscope " was issued late in May. This completes the Di- 

 cranaceae, includes the Grimmiaceae and Ephemeraceae, and 

 begins the Tortulaceae. 



Professor Volney M. Spalding has arranged to continue, during 

 the coming winter, at the Desert Botanical Laboratory of the 

 Carnegie Institution, the special line of research which he began 

 there last year. 



We learn from Science that Dr. Joseph T. Rothrock has been 

 compelled by ill health to resign the position of forestry com- 

 missioner of the state of Pennsylvania, and the vacancy has been 

 filled by the apppointment of Mr. Robert S. Conklin. 



Mr. Howard J. Banker, for several years past instructor in the 

 Southwestern State Normal School of Pennsylvania, is spending 

 the summer in study at the New York Botanical Garden. In 

 September he takes up his new duties as professor of biology in 

 DePauw University. 



Announcement was made in the daily press, during the last 

 week in July, of the death of Dr. Rodolfo Amando Philippi, 

 at the age of 95 years. Born and educated in Germany, he 

 settled in Chile in 185 i, and made that country his permanent 

 home. For many years he was director of the Museo Nacional, 

 at Santiago de Chile (a position now held by his son) ; and by his 

 death South America loses one of her most famous botanists. 



Mr. Roland M. Harper returned in June from Georgia, where 

 he had been engaged in field-work for about seven months. The 

 first four months were occupied in the collection of tree-speci- 

 mens for the Georgia State exhibit at St. Louis ; the remainder 

 of the time, in continuation of his phytogeographical exploration 

 of the coastal plain. An opportunity was thus afforded for a 

 study of the spring flora of this region, which has been but little 

 known. 



