NEWS NOTES 



George E. Osterhout, a member of the Torrey Botanical 

 Club for many years, died at Greeley, Colorado, on April second. 

 Born in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania on March 31, 1858, he 

 graduated from Lafayette College and in 1885 moved to Col- 

 orado where he made his home. He opened a lumber office in 

 Windsor, remaining in the lumber business for the rest of his 

 life. He was greatly interested in botany, collecting in his neigh- 

 borhood and throughout the state and neighboring states. Every 

 year he made at least one collecting trip to a distance. Among 

 the plants he found were many new species, most of which he 

 described in Torreya or the Bulletin of the Club. His herbarium 

 of some 25,000 specimens was said to be the largest personally 

 acquired and privately owned in the west. 



\\'hite pine blister-rust quarantine regulations were revised 

 this spring by adding ]^laryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wis- 

 consin to the area previously affected, — the New England 

 states, New York, Michigan, Minnesota and Iowa. In this area 

 the planting and possession of currant and gooseberry plants 

 are prohibited to prevent the introduction of the alternate host 

 of the rust into portions of the states where five-leaved pines 

 are of economic importance. 



Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge. This refuge to protect such wild 

 life as the ivory-billed woodpecker, sandhill crane, limpkin or 

 "crying bird," otter, alligator, and other birds and animals has 

 recently been established by the Biological Survey of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, confirmed by an Executive order. 

 The swamp is a wet timbered area with cypress, gum, bay and 

 red maple. There are many marshlike open spaces, called 

 "prairies" and scattered hummocks covered with cypress trees 

 or brush. 



The Allegany School of Natural History will open in Alle- 

 gany State Park in the southwestern part of New York State 

 on July 4 for its 11th season. College credit for courses in field 

 zoology, entomology, botany and nature study is offered. The 

 courses are designed for teachers, camps leaders and natural- 

 ists, but provision is also made for research. Information about 



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