Notes and Brief Articles 



45 



The influence of the war on botany is discussed in Science for 

 August 23, 1918, by Neil E. Stevens, who finds that the "most 

 striking effect on American botanists has been to direct their 

 attention more generally than ever before to the problems of 

 plant pathology. . . . Statements that we 'must save wheat for 

 our allies ' lent new interest to the fact that stinking smut of 

 wheat annually costs the United States twenty-two million bush- 

 els. Urgent advice that we must use perishable fruits and vege- 

 tables to save more concentrated foods for the armies in France 

 called public attention sharply to the fact that fresh fruits and 

 vegetables cannot easily be shipped great distances, that they are 

 in truth highly perishable ; and finally to the tragic fact that large 

 amounts are annually lost in transit and on the market. . . . This 

 summer is seeing a campaign for the control of plant diseases 

 never approached in this country. With this there is being car- 

 ried on an increased amount of research on fundamental scientific 

 questions of significance in the control of plant diseases. . . . 

 Undoubtedly the greatest immediate gain will come from the ex- 

 tension work, from the distribution of information to the plant 

 pathologists of every state in the union and the further distri- 

 bution of this information through the county agents and the 

 farm demonstrators to the actual producers. It is highly proba- 

 ble, however, that the greatest ultimate good to plant pathology 

 as a science and to the nation will come from the temporary en- 

 listment of a large number of botanists from other lines." 



Dr. Burt has done an excellent piece of work on the genus 

 Mendius as represented in North America. His treatment was 

 published in the Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden for 

 November, 1917, and comprises 58 pages of text, 38 text figures, 

 and 3 plates containing 36 figures photographed natural size. 

 There are 40 species recognized, 15 of which are new, 3 newly 

 combined, and 2 doubtful and excluded. Most of the Garden 

 collection was studied by Dr. Burt and 5 of his types are in the 

 Garden herbarium. 



New species : Mendius hirsutus, from Jalapa, Mexico, Murrill; 

 M. cuhensis, from Alto Cedro, Cuba, Earle & Murrill; M. gyro- 

 sns, from Vermilion, Michigan, Povah; M. sororius, from Ta- 



