49 



Hall, the writer of the article which is the subject of this review, 

 concludes as follows, after admitting the difficulty of applying 

 this remedy on a large scale: "Sooner or later, our trials will 

 reach a cheap and practical issue. But if we do succeed, we 

 shall have added one more to the number of new discoveries 

 which are as old as time: Virgil in his Georgies describes the 

 advantages to be obtained by mixing the surface soil with weeds 

 and rubbish and burning it gently, and the practice is still 

 followed among the native cultivators in India." This, Mr. Hall 

 concludes means a warfare "against an invisible population, of 

 which the very existence was unsuspected a generation ago." 

 And the results are due to the killing of "unsuspected groups of 

 large organisms of the protozoan class, which feed upon living 

 bacteria," arid heating or treatment by antiseptics relieves the 

 bacteria which partially escape the treatment from their attack, 

 allowing them to increase to an enormous degree, with a corre- 

 sponding rise in ammonia production — and therefore of fertility. 

 ■ — Science, September i6, 1909. 



The October Journal of the New York Botanical Garden contains 

 an article by George V. Nash on "Winter Decorative Shrubs." 

 Over thirty such shrubs are listed with brief descriptions. School 

 grounds are usually planted with summer decorative shrubs, 

 and are consequently not at their best during the greater part 

 of the school year. It is possible to use winter shrubs in such a 

 way as to add to the summer display, and yet leave a well- 

 balanced and pleasing scheme during the winter. 



A recent paper by Alma G. Stokey on Lycopodium pithyoides 

 notes the fact that in this species the sporangia are cauline 

 rather than folia, through continued inequality in the rate of 

 growth which causes it eventually to take a "position on the stem 

 entirely distinct from the leaf." 



The Japanese are going to replace the cherry trees presented 

 to Mrs. Taft by Japan to adorn the Potomac Drive at Wash- 

 ington, and which had to be destroyed on arrival because they 

 were infected by insects. 



