to which mineral plant food had been applied the axerage value 

 is $76.83, the increase heing 140 per cent, above the cost of the 

 minerals." 



Professor Hopkins therefore cjuestions encouraging the Whitney 

 "doctrine" that it is never necessary at any time to introduce 

 fertilizing material into any soil for the purpose of increasing 

 the amount of plant food in that soil. 



NEWS ITEMS 



At the University of Chicago the following promotions have 

 been made in the department of botany: C. J. Chamberlin from 

 assistant to associate professor; H. C. Cowles from assistant to 

 associate professor; W. J. G. Land from instructor to assistant 

 professor; and William Crocker from instructor to assistant 

 professor. 



Mr. E. L. Morris, curator of natural sciences at the Brooklyn 

 Institute Museum, has been appointed acting curator-in-chief to 

 fill the vacancy occasioned by Dr. F. A. Lucas's resignation. Dr. 

 Lucas has been appointed director of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, New York. 



The University of Michigan's announcement for the summer 

 session of its Biological Station includes several courses in botany 

 under Dr. H. A. Gleason. The Station will be located in a tract 

 stretching from Douglas to Burt Lakes, Cheboygan Co., Michi- 

 gan. The session will extend from July 3 to August 25. 



Mr. Carl Sherman Hoar has been appointed as an assistant in 

 botany at Harvard University, and the following have been ap- 

 pointed Austin teaching fellows for 1911-1912: R. H. Colley, 

 A. J. Eames, and E. W. Sinnott. 



We learn from Science (June 9) that a party from the University 

 of Nebraska will spend the time from June 15 to September 15 

 in making an ecological survey of the central and western parts 

 of the state. Recording instruments will be set up at intervals 

 and a particular study of the ecology of the sandhills will be 

 undertaken. The party includes R. H. Wolcott, F. H. Shoemaker, 

 R. J. Pool, and C. V. Williams. 



