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NEWS ITEMS 



Professor F. K. Ravn, professor of plant pathology at the 

 Danish Royal College of Agriculture, who has been travelling 

 and lecturing in the United States as the guest of Government, 

 visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on August 13. 



Dr. A. F. de Waldheim, director of the Imperial Botanic 

 Garden at Petrograd, has just completed his fiftieth year of 

 scientific and administrative activities. A ceremony in the hall 

 of the herbarium at the garden, with presentation of addresses 

 marked the occasion. Until 1897, when he became director of 

 the garden, Dr. de Waldheim was professor of botany at the 

 University of Warsaw. 



Mr. Walter Pitz has been awarded the bronze thesis medal of 

 the Science Club of the University of Wisconsin for his paper on 

 "The elTect of elemental sulphur and of calcium sulphate on 

 certain of the higher and lower forms of plant life." 



In the Journal of the New York Botanical Garden for July a 

 Statement of the permanent funds and endowment of the garden 

 shows that the fund is now somewhat more than five hundred 

 thousand dollars, not counting two bequests aggregating $25,000, 

 which are subject to life interests. Besides the general endow- 

 ment fund, there are eleven other funds devoted to special 

 purposes. The Board of Managers appeal for a total endow- 

 ment fund of over a million and a half dollars. 



Among Cambridge University scientists serving in the British 

 army the following botanists are recorded in Nature: R. P. 

 Gregory, E. Hindle, and H. H. Thomas. 



From the Sun (August 14) we learn that Dr. Otto Appel, the 

 European plant pathologist, who came to the United States 

 more than a year ago at the invitation of this government to 

 aid investigations into diseases which are destroying the potato 

 crops throughout the country, will sail to-day on the steamship 

 Kristianiafjord of the Norwegian Line. He has been working 



