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The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for May, contained 

 an article by Professor John W. Harshberger on the water-stor- 

 ing tubers found on Asparagiis Sprengeri, and on two species of 

 ferns, Nephrolepis cordifolia and N. davallioides. Fresh tubers 

 were tested microchemically for various food substances ; the 

 results indicated that water storage is their principal function. 



In this period of too rapid utilization of our forest products it 

 is a relief to hear from the Forest Service that " on the Pacific 

 coast, especially in Oregon and California, there is an immense 

 amount of white fir {Abies concolor') timber now going to waste 

 for lack of some commercially profitable means of disposing of 

 it. At present it is very little used for lumber, and since it is not 

 cut to any extent its proportion in the forest tends to increase at 

 the expense of other and more valuable trees. Experiments 

 conducted at the Forest Service laboratory at Washington show 

 that this wood is admirably adapted for the production of paper 

 pulp by the sulphite process. It is also claimed that, so far as 

 the product is concerned, the manufacture of fiber from white fir 

 would be a commercial success and that the fiber produced would 

 find its greatest usefulness in the production of manilas, where 

 great strength is required, and in tissues which need very long 

 fibers. It seems probable, also, that it would make very good 

 newspapers, for which purpose its naturally light color would par- 

 ticularly adapt it. 



NEWS ITEMS 



Mr. David Day Whitney has been appointed instructor in biol- 

 ogy at Wesleyan University. 



Mr. Harry L. Wieman has been made instructor in biology at 

 the University of Cincinnati. 



Professor Frank Lewis Rainey, of Parsons College, Iowa, has 

 been appointed as professor of biology in Central University, 

 Kentucky. 



Edward W. Berry, of the Johns Hopkins University, has been 

 appointed American editor for Paleobotany on the Botanisches 

 Centralblatt. 



Mr. William Bateson, F.R.S., who recently lectured on 

 heredity in this country, has been elected to the chair of biology 

 at Cambridge University. 



