35 



The leaf surface was slightly greater in the healthy specimen, 

 as the normal leaves were larger than the rusted, but the num- 

 ber was nearly equal in the two specimens. Large test-tubes 

 were used, in which the branches were left tightly corked over 

 night. When examined on the morning of the 25th the healthy 

 branch was not wilted, the rusted one was considerably so. The 

 rusted specimen evaporated 42 cc. while the healthy specimen 

 evaporated 23 cc. of water under parallel conditions. 



Thus the branch with the rusted leaves absorbed nearly twice 

 as much water as the healthy branch, and yet failed to remain 

 unwilted. The rust covered the lower surface of nearly all of 

 the leaflets almost completely, and the extra demand for water 

 thus imposed upon the plant was equivalent to doubling the leaf 

 surface, as indicated by the volume of water transpired. 



NEWS ITEMS 



Professor A. S. Hitchcock, of the Kansas Agricultural Col- 

 lege, has been appointed Assistant Agrostologist of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in the place of Thomas A. Williams, 

 deceased. 



A revision of the Crotons of the United States by A. M. 

 Ferguson has recently been issued as a separate from the 

 Twelfth Annual Report of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 

 Twenty-six species and several varieties are described, most of 

 which are also illustrated. 



The Yale Summer School of Forestry will hold its sessions 

 this year at Grey Towers, the estate of Mr. James W. Pinchot, 

 near the village of Milford, Pike Co., Pennsylvania. The instruc- 

 tion will be under the charge of Professor Henry S. Graves and 

 Professor James W. Tourney. 



Mr. Percy Wilson, Museum Aid at the New York Botanical 

 Garden, has been sent with the Solar Eclipse Expedition, under 

 the direction of Professor David P. Todd, of Amherst College, 

 to the Dutch East Indies, for the purpose of securing museum 

 specimens, living plants and seeds. He sailed on March 2, by 

 way of the Suez Canal, for Singapore. 



