NEWS NOTES 



A CONFERENCE on Plant and Animal Communities was held 

 at the Biological Laboratory of the Long Island Biological 

 Association at Cold Spring Harbor from August 29 to Septem- 

 ber 2. Besides papers on types of plants and animal communi- 

 ties and theories regarding their formation and organization, 

 field trips were conducted to regions where different habitats 

 with their characteristic communities were studied. 



A DEPARTMENT of forestry has been established at the Illi- 

 nois Experiment Station, with Dr. John N. Spaeth, who has 

 been assistant professor of forestry at Cornell University, as 

 director. 



In Pasadena, California, a group of four one-story buildings 

 have been erected for the Pasadena Flower Show Association. 

 The buildings are grouped around an open quadrangle contain- 

 ing several fine live oaks with a curving pergola at the back of 

 the group. The buildings are the gift of Mrs. Fannie E. Mor- 

 rison and were completed just in time for the fall flower show 

 from October 27 to 30. They will be used for the annual spring 

 and fall shows of the association and be available for special 

 exhibits at other times. 



Work is in progress at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on 

 new architectural features of the horticultural section. There 

 are to be new water basins, fountains, seats and columns. The 

 pair of coupled columns at the south end of the Long Green 

 are fourteen feet high and are similar to those in the Boboli 

 Gardens in Florence. The two single columns at the north end 

 are thirty-five feet high. These improvements are a gift from 

 Mrs. Dean C. Osborne. A new gate or portal on Eastern Park- 

 way is also planned. 



The 125th anniversary of the Nikitsky Botanical Gardens 

 in the Crimea was observed by the establishment of five new 

 gardens, supplied with plants from the parent institution. Dur- 

 ing the past decade over 1,000 new species and varieties of 

 plants have been tested in the gardens, and 233 new kinds were 

 introduced into general cultivation in the USSR as a result of 

 these tests. (Science) 



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