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NEWS ITEMS 



In the March-April number of Torreya the printer made it 

 appear that Dr. Francis W. Pennell was in Columbia, S. C. Dr. 

 Pennell is continuing the study of the flora of the high Andes 

 of Colombia, South America, that he began in the fall of 1917. 

 With him is Dr. Ellsworth P. Killip of the U. S. National 

 MuvSeum. The expedition was sent out by the New York Bo- 

 tanical Garden, the Gray Herbarium of Harvard, the Academy of 

 Natural Science of Philadelphia and the United States National 

 Museum. 



Dr. John K. Small has just returned to the New York Bo- 

 tanical Garden from two months of study and exploration in 

 Florida, continuing his previous investigations of the flora under 

 the patronage of Mr. Charles Deering. 



The May number of the American Forester contains an 

 article on Our Vanishing Wild Flowers by Winthrop Packard. 

 The article, which is accompanied by excellent photographs of 

 some of the most attractive of our wild flowers, is a plea for the 

 protection of the flowers. 



Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour. The announcement has just been 

 made of the retirement of the eminent keeper of the Edinburg 

 Botanical Garden and Professor of Botany in the University of 

 Edinburg. In this muddled world, with all its conflicts and 

 misunderstandings, it is easy to lose faith in the capacity of 

 mankind for decent civilization. In such moments of pessimism, 

 it is worth a good deal to have seen such a man as Professor 

 Bayley Balfour. Possessing seemingly equal abilities for bo- 

 tanical research, teaching, and administration, together with 

 unbounded enthusiasm and untiring energy, he more than main- 

 tained the already very high traditions of Scottish botany. 

 Doing this he also won the full support and esteem of his fellow 

 citizens. — T. D. A. Cockerell. 



The hairy Solomon's seal, Polygonatum hiflonim, with 

 slender stems and twin flowers, was just coming into bloom 



