168 



present educational disabilites. It is true they will not give us 

 perfection. But what is perfection, and who wants it? Perfec- 

 tion, so I fancy, for I never have seen it, is in this like truth, that 

 there is more pleasure in seeking than in finding it. Besides, 

 man, for whom we are doing it all, is imperfect, though the 

 extent thereof depends upon the point from which we view him. 

 If one were to look down upon him from the place of the angels 

 towards which he likes to believe he is ascending, he must seem a 

 very poor creature, deserving only of pity. But if one looks up 

 after him from the place of the beasts from which we know he 

 has risen, then he looms as a very grand figure, worthy of credit 

 and honor. After all, perfect or imperfect, good, bad or indif- 

 ferent, he is the very best thing of which we are sure. It behooves 

 us, therefore, to make the most of him. 

 Smith College 



NEWS ITEMS 



Mr. John Burroughs has recently received an honorary degree, 

 LL.D., from Yale University. 



Dr. Ernst A. Bessy, of the Louisiana State University, has been 

 made professor of botany at the Michigan Agricultural College. 



Dr. J. E. Kirkwood has been advanced to professor-in-charge 

 of the new department of botany and forestry at the University 

 of Montana. 



Professor H. H. Rusby, while continuing his rubber investiga- 

 tions in Mexico, is collecting economic and medicinal material 

 for the New York Botanical Garden. 



At the New York Botanical Garden the four o'clock lectures 

 which will be continued into September include the following: 

 "Edible Mushrooms," by W. A. Murrill, August 6; "Influences 

 which Govern Local Distribution of Plants," by Norman Taylor, 

 August 13; "Botanical Cruises among the Bahamas," by Dr. M. 

 A. Howe, August 20; "Grasses and their Economic Importance," 

 by George V. Nash, August 27; "Poisonous Mushrooms," by 

 Dr. W. A. Murrill, September 3; and "European Influences in 

 the History of American Botany," by Dr. J. H. Barnhart, 

 September 10. 



