a course of summer lectures on forestry 

 at Idyllwild, 'Strawberry Valley, San 

 Jacinto mountains, Riverside county, 

 California, from July 29 to August 10, 

 1903,. This will be the first school of 

 forestry west of the Allegheny moun- 

 tains, and the lectures will be- given by 

 Dr. W. L. Jepson, Prof. Arnold V. Stu- 

 benraueh, and (probably) Mr. Gifford 

 Pinchot. The fee for the course will be 

 six dollars. 



C. C. 



Cactus Connoisseurs would be the 

 polite expansion of the initials head- 

 ing this article, but Cactus Cranks is 

 possibly the more common form used 

 by an indifferent world when Cactus 

 Collectors are referred to. 



It is proposed to collect brief sketches 

 of those whose names have been con- 

 nected in the past with these fascinat- 

 ing plants, which in the end might be 

 incorporated into an Encyclopaedia of 

 Biography. 

 BRIGGS, MRS. MAUD M.: 



Mrs. Briggs will be remembered by 

 cactus fanciers from her having used 

 the expression, in advertising her cacti, 

 that she lived 'where they grow.' She 

 was a florist who lived at El Paso, Tex- 

 as, with a penchant for using and con- 

 fusing the botanical names — which left 

 her correspondents in delightful sus- 

 pense as to what they might receive. 

 Chihuahua dogs were favorite pets 

 with her. In 1899 she reported a new 

 Mammillaria which was to be named in 

 her honor — but none are known to exist 

 in scientific collections, and soon after 

 she ceased to "'live where they grow." 

 —Or. 

 BRANDEGEE, MRS. KATHARINE: 



A prominent character in the annals 

 of West American botany, whose inter- 

 net in cacti began soon after she ceased 

 her career under the name of Mrs. 

 Mary K. Curran. Many species have 

 treen described by her pen as a result of 

 her own and her husband's explora- 

 tions, chiefly identified with Lower Cal- 

 ifornia (as pertains to cacti) up to the 

 present writing (1903). — Or. 

 CURRAN, MRS. MARY K. : 



See Katharine Brandegee. 

 MAIN, MRS. F. M.: 



In passing through NogaleB, Arizona, 



in 1899, I met this energetic woman, 

 who after acquiring a substantial prop- 

 ery in brick buildings, houses and lots, 

 took to cactus collecting — as she frank- 

 ly explained— for the money. The most 

 of her collections were made in the vi- 

 cinity of Nogales — mostly on the Sone- 

 ra side, her expeditions extending prob- 

 ably the whole length of the Sonora 

 railroad. Mammillaria Mainae com- 

 memorates her -work and was undoubt- 

 edly obtained in the mountains of So- 

 nora near Nogales — at least I was so 

 informed by one of her assistants. She 

 was reported to have been killed in a 

 saloon fight in 1902 (an affair that 

 would have been characteristic of the 

 border town in which she lived), but 

 the facts were that she died in Los An- 

 geles, California, from an operation for 

 cancer. — Or. 

 NICKELS, MRS. ANNA B. : 



As a pioneer woman florist in the 

 southwest, and the first woman C. C, 

 Mrs. Nickels has won wide recognition 

 and deserves more than passing notice. 

 After years of correspondence, I had 

 the pleasure of meeting her in 1902, at 

 her son's home in San Luis Potosi — a 

 woman over seventy, still an eager en- 

 thusiast, planning trips into new re- 

 gions that would be a credit to the 

 modern woman. Several species named 

 in her honor have been introduced to 

 the horticultural world through her la- 

 bors and explorations, and one could 

 listen for hours, unwearied, to accounts 

 of her eanly expeditions. Unfortunate- 

 ly she has been more diligent in the 

 use of the pick than of the pen, and 

 much that she might have added to the 

 world's store of useful and curious lore 

 remains to be recorded by others, who 

 may follow in her footsteps. — Or. 



VACCINATION ASA LAWFUL MEN- 

 ACE TO LIFE AND LONGEVITY. 



Most poisons leave the drug store 

 with a death head on the label to warn 

 life-loving Americans of danger in 

 their use. Vaccine virus, on the other 

 hand, goes out under protection of the 

 law to indiscriminate use. In case of 

 accident there is no redress. In sever- 

 al States there is a law requiring 

 school children to be vaccinated but 

 in no State does the law lay any pen- 



