270 



The Plant World. 



controversial literature which happily is less in vogue than form- 

 erly in centers of botanical activity. The paper is entitled 

 "Ueber den ersten Oefnungsvorgang bei Antheren," but the real 

 subject is the mistakes of a gentleman named Schneider, who 

 had ventured into the preserves of the author and had even 

 dared to call some of his previous work in question. If it is ad- 

 mitted that such offenders deserve to be drawn and quartered, 

 or at least flayed in public, it may nevertheless be permissible 

 to suggest that the process be shortened out of consideration for 

 lookers-on A slight change of proportion would be a relief. 

 In an article of twelve pages, say, ten perhaps might go to the 

 statement of scientific facts and two to castigation, instead of 

 the reverse. 



An article by Dr. John Gifford on the Everglades of Florida 

 in a recent number of Conservation makes one wish that the 

 homely work of preserving vanishing data appealed more strong- 

 ly both to the scientific and popular imagination. The whole 

 world, from the man in the street to members of learned societies, 

 has been astir over the finding of the north pole, although as far 

 as botanical science is concerned the results might almost be 

 summed up in Lieutenant Danenhauer's report after a disastrous 

 expedition that "there is a great deal of ice up there, and it will 

 probably keep." The draining of the Everglades is well under 

 way and when accomplished it will open for cultivation an area 

 estimated at three times the extent of the land now cultivated in 

 the whole state of Florida. Economically speaking, its recla- 

 mation is a highly important and desirable undertaking, but 

 once completed a most interesting set of relations will be changed 

 forever. Yet probably it would be quite impossible to get an 

 appropriation of ten thousand dollars for work on the botanical 

 history of the Everglades and that of the West Indies, to which 

 it is related, where ten times that sum is readily forthcoming 

 to pay for polar expeditions. 



