224 



of a number of American scientists who attended the meeting 

 of the British Association at Portsmouth. 



Dr. and Mrs. N. L. Britton have returned from Europe and 

 Dr. P. A. Rydberg has returned from a three months' collecting 

 trip to the Rocky Mountains. Dr. Arthur Hollick left on Oc- 

 tober 15 to continue his studies on Alaskan fossil plants at the 

 United States National Museum. 



A conjugating yeast {Scliizosaccharomyces) has been reported 

 by W. C. Coker. It was obtained from grapes left in distilled 

 water, and has not been noted before in America. 



J. G. Lipman of Rutgers College proposes a bacteriological 

 test for soil acidity. Tubes of bouillon are adjusted to varying 

 acid reactions — from neutral to three per cent. After adding 

 measured amounts of the soil to be tested (i to 10 grams) these 

 media are inoculated with bacteria {e. g., Bacillus subtilis) and 

 the amount of acid in the soils estimated by the resulting growth 

 (heavy, slight, lacking). This method may be varied for am- 

 monifying bacteria, for nitrogen-fixing forms, etc. Mr. Lipman 

 expects to publish more definite results of his experiments soon. 



The seedling of Quercus virginiana is described in the Plant 

 World for May by Isaac M. Lewis. The "petiole of the coty- 

 ledons in this species serves as a 'sinker' in much the same 

 way as is characteristic of certain monocotyledonous plants, 

 notably Phoenix dactylifera. This habit, correlated with the 

 habit of transporting the material from the acorn down to a 

 position of greater safety in the fleshy root, would seem to be a 

 decided advantage to the plant in establishing itself in the semi- 

 arid situations in which it is often found." 



Conjugation between two different species of Spirogyra {S. 

 crassa and 6". communis) is reported in the June Bulletin of the 

 Torrey Botanical Club by Mr. F. M. Andrews, who is continuing 

 his investigations hoping for interesting results connected with 

 these hybrid forms. 



