NOTES AND BRIEF ARTICLES 



Professor F. S. Earle spent some days at the Garden about the 

 middle of August and then sailed for Porto Rico, where he will 

 investigate for the United States Government a serious and rather 

 obscure disease of sugarcane. 



Mr. Stephen C. Bruner, formerly assistant pathologist at the 

 Estacion Experimental Agronomica, Santiago de las Vegas, 

 Cuba, has been appointed pathologist to succeed Mr. John R. 

 Johnston, now head of the Office of Sanadad Vegetal, Havana. 



Venenarius pantherinoides, described by Murrill from Seattle 

 in 1912, has recently been collected at Olympia, Wash., by Miss 

 M. McKenny, who states that it was eaten by two persons with 

 almost fatal results. 



Mr. F. W. Haasis reports in the Journal of Agricultural Re- 

 search for 19 1 7 that young pines in plantations at Portland, Conn., 

 were found to be dying around ant-hills, the trouble being usually 

 associated with fungous and scolytid infestations. Ants are 

 thought to be instrumental in spreading the disease. 



In a recent number of Science, Professor Gage suggests an 

 excellent method for the preparation of lantern slides showing 

 diagrams, tables, etc. This consists in first covering the glass 

 with a thin coating of varnish and then drawing upon it with a 

 pen, using India ink. Such slides may be covered and bound if 

 desired for permanent use. 



An unprecedented danger from fire in the National Forests of 

 the Northwest and Pacific Coast, owing to early drought, high 

 winds, electrical storms, labor shortage, and depletion of the reg- 

 ular protective forces because of the war, has made necessary a 



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