203 



f)hysicists, chemists, business men, etc., by various other names. 

 A wide range of illustrations is given, taken almost entirely from 

 the biological sciences and grouped under such topics as pressure 

 and concentration, temperature, light, moisture, food and fer- 

 tilizers, secretions, climate, and non-adaptability. The biolo- 

 gist's point of view is discussed, and spontaneous variation is 

 described as "merely another way of expressing our ignorance" 

 due to the fact the present and transmitted effects of external 

 conditions are known but incompletely. The article was re- 

 printed in Science and has been the cause of much commendatory 

 discussion. 



Professor Bessey has corrected the plant group estimates given 

 in Torreya, adding (approximately) 1,300 to the ferns, 70 to the 

 gymnosperms, 3,700 to the monocotyledons, and 18,000 to the 

 dicotyledons. These, with a few other changes, make a total 

 estimate of 233,000 instead of 210,000. 



Frederick V. Coville {Science, May 5) suggests growing trailing 

 arbutus in acid soils. Successful experiments were conducted 

 with these plants — so rarely seen in cultivation — by using an 

 acid soil, nine parts kalmia peat and one part clean sand. By 

 March seeds from the previous July had produced plants un- 

 usual in size (seven-eighths of an inch in diameter) and fragrance. 

 Mr. Coville incidentally describes the fruit of the arbutus as 

 juicy instead of dry and states that the dehiscence is not locu- 

 licidal. At the lecture on June 3, at the New York Botanical 

 Garden, Mr. Coville showed many interesting lantern photo- 

 graphs, and demonstrated more extensively on the cultivation of 

 numerous plants of the heath family and of some of our local 

 orchids in acid soils. 



The following single sheet publication of the Department of 

 Agriculture is attracting wide notice: "A New Kind of Corn 

 FROM China." "A small lot of shelled corn, of a kind that is 

 new to this country, was sent to the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture from Shanghai, China, in 1908, and tested the same 

 .season. It proved to have qualities that may make it valuable 



