June 23, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



963 



and Leipzig of any foreign university, on the 

 faculties of the institutions under discussion. 



EUDOLF TOMBO, Jr., 



Registrar. 



Columbia University. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



MICHIGAN FORESTRY. 



That rational views as to forestry are 

 steadily growing in popular favor is shown 

 by the increasing attention wliich is given 

 the subject by state and local organizations. 

 The recent appearance of the report of the 

 Michigan Forestry Commission forcibly em- 

 phasizes the changed attitude of the people 

 with reference to the forests. Many years 

 ago the writer was an interested eye witness 

 of the lumbering operations which finally 

 denuded the state of its fine forests, and at 

 that time nothing that any one said had the 

 least effect in staying the hands of the de- 

 stroyers. There was but one thing to be done 

 with the forests, and that was to destroy them. 

 And now, alas, when it is too late to save even 

 a remnant of the magnificent tree growth the 

 public conscience has been awakened, and the 

 enormity of the crime is beginning to be 

 realized. 



The report enumerates the steps taken by " 

 the commission in the campaign of education 

 which it has inaugurated, and includes the re- 

 port of the warden of the state forest reserves- 

 (Professor Roth), followed by a collection of 

 essays by a considerable number of public- 

 spirited citizens, all tending to create an in- 

 terest in the planting or conservation of 

 forests. The forest reserves include about 

 34,000 acres near Higgins and Houghton 

 lakes in Crawford and Roscommon coun- 

 ties. Originally almost all of the land of 

 these reserves was covered by heavy forest of 

 pine, cedar, tamarack and some hardwoods. 

 In a few striking sentences Professor Roth 

 tells the story of the destruction of the great 

 forest, and the transformation of the sylvan 

 landscape into a dreary waste. It is a pitiful 

 tale of greed for gain coupled with utter care- 

 lessness as to the future of the country. Pho- 

 tographs make very real the story he so graph- 



ically tells. Yet other photographs give us 

 a view of the more cheerful story which may 

 be told in the future when the seedlings now 

 springing up are allowed to grow into a new 

 forest. If the fires are kept out these areas 

 may again be covered with trees. To this 

 end the commission is working, and in this 

 laudable undertaking every scientific man in 

 the country will wish them Godspeed. 



A NEW BOOK ON ECOLOGY. 



At last, after much delay, the University 

 Publishing Company, of Lincoln, Nebr., has 

 issued Professor Clement's book on ' Research 

 Methods in Ecology.' An adequate review of 

 this important contribution to modern botany 

 will appear in due time, and it is only neces- 

 sary to say now that it analyzes critically the 

 problems which confront the practical ecol- 

 ogist (theoretical ecologists appear to have no 

 such difiiculties), and discusses the methods 

 of solution with great detail, in which many 

 illustrations and descriptions of instruments 

 are used. 



ORIGINAL DESCRIPTIONS OF SPECIES. 



A. A. Heller, of Los Gates, California, has 

 undertaken the publication of a series of 

 fascicles in which appear the original descrip- 

 tions of all of the North American species of 

 certain genera of plants. He has already is- 

 sued such fascicles for Lupinus, Trifolium, 

 Rihes, Castilleia and Artemisia, including 

 descriptions of 464 species. Each species is 

 given a separate sheet, and the sheets for each 

 genus are enclosed in special manila paper 

 covers. The cheap price of these reprints 

 (about one cent each) places them within the 

 reach of all botanists who are interested in 

 this department of systematic botany. 



NORTH AMERICAN RUSTS. 



Professor Holway, of the University of 

 Minnesota, has begun the publication of an 

 important work on the rusts, entitled ' North 

 American Uredineae,' of which Part 1 of 

 Volume I. has just appeared. This part is a 

 quarto pamphlet of 32 pages of text, accom- 

 panied with ten j^hotomicrograph plates of 



