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NEWS ITEMS 



A. O. Garret, head of the department of biology of the Salt 

 Lake High Schools, is a field assistant in forest pathology, 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, for the summer. He has been work- 

 ing in western Colorado, northeastern Utah, and southwestern 

 Wyoming, investigating Peridermium occidentale. 



. Dr. N. L. Britton has received the following letter from a 

 prisoner of war interned in Canada : 



Kapuskasing, Ont., Canada, July the 13, 1918. 

 To THE Department of Botany, Bronx Park, New York 

 City. 

 Dear Sir: I send you this little plant for your kind advice. It 

 grows to about 4 to 5 in. high, found in the bush near Amherst, 

 N. S., and also near the Kapuskasing River. It seems to have 

 a perennial root^ with trifoliate leaves; spring alternately from 

 its root-stalk. The roots are fibrous, thin, long and of yellow- 

 brown color when fresh. They taste bitter and keep this bitter 

 taste even when they are dry. Some men at Amherst boil and 

 drink them like tea; they say It is a good remedy for certain ills. 

 Would you kindly send me your worthy opinion on the matter 

 and also the botanical name of the genus and the family to 

 which it belongs. I am a gardener and therefore I take a great 

 interest in plants. Yours faithfully, 



Peter Maurer, Pr. of War, 2724 

 Kapuskasing, Ont., 

 Canada. 



The plant referred to, of which a drawing and description 

 were appended, is Coptis trifolia, the gold-thread. 



Professor Byron D. Halsted, one of the oldest members of the 

 club, and since 1889 professor of botany at Rutgers College, died 

 on August 28. He was born at Venice, N. Y., on June 7, 1852, 

 and was known throughout the country for many contributions 

 to various botanical journals. One of his most recent papers 

 was in Torreya. for June, 1917, on "The weight of seeds as re- 

 lated to their number and position." 



