556 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 536. 



It is interesting to compare these two ma- 

 rine stations — the first on the New England 

 mainland, looking across to Martha's Vine- 

 yard, and the Elizabeth Islands, with the in- 

 teresting flora of the north Atlantic coast, 

 rich in many red seaweeds; and the second 

 on the shore of Vancouver Island, looking out 

 across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to Cape 

 Flattery, and the Olympic Mountains of the 

 northwest corner of Washington. Here the 

 marine flora is especially rich in the great 

 kelps so characteristic of the Pacific coast of 

 North America. 



UTAH FUNGI. 



Some months ago Mr. A. O. Garrett, of 

 Salt Lake City, issued the first fascicle of 

 twenty-five numbers of Utah fungi under the 

 title of ' Fungi TJtahenses.' This fascicle is 

 devoted to the Uredinese, and it is the author's 

 intention to follow this plan in succeeding 

 issues, so that each will contain specimens 

 belonging at least to closely related groups. 

 Mr. Garrett has modeled his collection upon 

 the pattern so well set by Professor Kellerman 

 in his ' Ohio Fungi.' The specimens are care- 

 fully selected, and neatly put up. Each spe- 

 cies is accompanied by a reprint of the orig- 

 inal description. This distribution should 

 have a large sale, especially among eastern 

 botanists. 



PHOTOGRAPHS OF VEGETATION. 



Two years ago the first fascicle of an im- 

 portant work was issued by Gustav Fischer, 

 of Jena, under the simple title of ' Vegeta- 

 tionsbilder.' Since then nine fascicles have 

 appeared, and it is now possible to judge quite 

 accurately in regard to its usefulness. The 

 work is edited by Professor Doctor G. Kar- 

 sten, of the University of Bonn, and Professor 

 Doctor Schenck, of the Technical High School 

 of Darmstadt. Each fascicle includes six 

 large reproductions (16 by 21 cm.) of photo- 

 graphs of vegetation, each accompajiied by a 

 page or two of explanatory text. The first 

 fascicle is devoted to the vegetation of south- 

 ern Brazil and is the work of Dr. Schenck. 

 The second fascicle, by Dr. Karsten, illus- 

 trates the vegetation of the Malayan Archi- 

 pelago; the third is again by Dr. Schenck, 



who takes up some economic plants of the 

 tropics, as Thea sinensis, Theohroma cacao, 

 Coffea arahica, etc. Fascicle 4, devoted to 

 tropical and subtropical Mexican vegetation, 

 is edited by Dr. Karsten, while the next, re- 

 lating to southwest Africa, is from the hand 

 of Dr. Schenck. In the latter the most re- 

 markable is Plate 25, showing a desert, with 

 several plants of Welwitschia mirahilis in the 

 foreground. The sixth fascicle, by Dr. Kar- 

 sten, contains photographs of six species of 

 monocotyledonous trees, including one plate 

 of a giant bamboo clump {Dendrocalamus gi- 

 ganteus) forty meters high, on the island of 

 Ceylon. Six views of Brazilian strand vege- 

 tation, by Dr. Schenck, make up the seventh 

 fascicle, and another half dozen devoted to 

 Mexican cactuses and agaves (by Dr. Karsten 

 and Dr. Stahl) make up the eighth fascicle 

 which closes Series I. of the publication. The 

 second series opens with a fascicle by E. Ule, 

 on Amazonian epiphytes, in which the illustra- 

 tions and text maintain the high degree of 

 excellence of the first series. 



It is to be hoped that this most useful pub- 

 lication will be continued until the vegetation 

 of the more important parts of the world have 

 been depicted and described. It certainly fills 

 a place in the botanist's library that has not 

 hitherto been occupied. 



Charles E. Bessey. 

 The UiMVERSiTY of Nebraska. 



iiCIENTlFlC ^'OTES AND NEWS. 

 We regret to learn that Lord Kelvin is ill 

 after a surgical operation. 



A statue of Professor Conrad Rontgen has 

 been placed on one of the bridges in Berlin. 



Professor Wilhelji Ostwald, the eminent 

 physical chemist of Leipzig, will again this 

 year take part in the work of the summer 

 school of the University of California. 



Dr. Frank Schlesinger has been elected 

 director of the New Allegheny Observatory, 

 and assumed the duties of the ofiice on April 

 1. The observatory has an endowment fund, 

 and a regular income from the time service, 

 besides owning a large and valuable property 

 in the City of Allegheny, which will be- 



