Notes and Comment. 



119 



of Johns Hopkins, Dr. H. S. Conard of Iowa College and Mr. 

 H. S. York of the University of Texas. Botanical investigators 

 may obtain information regarding the facilities ottered by corres- 

 ponding with Dr. Johnson. 



It is not practicable here to give detailed information con- 

 cerning the numerous institutions which, at various points from 

 Bermuda on the east, to Friday Harbor, Washington, on the 

 west, have opened, or are about to open, stations for study or 

 research in botany or zoology, or both. The western univer- 

 sities are coming to make the summer sessions, conducted in 

 part at these stations, a part of their regular work, credit being 

 given the same as at any other time of the year. This is a dis- 

 tinct advantage to students of the biological sciences, which, 

 as regards field work, are pursued most profitably in summer. 

 Experience has shown that these summer sessions, which are 

 largely attended by teachers of secondary schools, have been 

 and are instrumental in disseminating more correct knowledge 

 and in inculcating a more intelligent and reasonable attitude 

 regarding the disciplinary value of the biological sciences than 

 was formerly prevalent in educational centers, and this is due, 

 perhaps chiefly, to the marked improvement in biological in- 

 struction in the secondary schools and colleges, which has re- 

 sulted in no small degree from the opportunities for summer 

 work now so generally provided. 



On the other hand it is significant and in the highest degree 

 encouraging that laboratories either primarily or exclusively 

 for research have multiplied in recent years, and are offering 

 almost unlimited facilities for investigation. If only those that 

 have been established in the last decade, or even a shorter period, 

 are taken into account, it is seen that there is hardly any recog- 

 nized branch of biological investigation calling for work at the 

 seashore, or at a mountain or desert or island station, but is 

 provided with means, and what is more, the presence of one or 

 more recognized leaders of advanced thought and investigation 

 in the departments there represented. 



