24 
SAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUE. 
This league has been organized to secure for pres- 
ervation in their natural state tracts of virgin Redwood 
timber in the main portion of the great northern Red- 
wood Belt. It is planned to preserve a portion of the 
forest bordering the new state highway into Eureka and 
also to secure a large unbroken body of the finest 
Redwood stand for dedication as a great National 
Redwood Park. Any one who is interested in joining 
the league or promoting its interests should address 
Mr. Robert G. Sproul, Secretary, 430 Library, University 
of California, Berkeley, Cal. The President of the 
League is Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, 
COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC PLANTS. 
At a recent meeting of the Committee on Economic 
Plants plans were made for continuing the work re- 
ported on at the last annual meeting along four differ- 
ent lines, each under the direction of a member of the 
committee. The proposed lines of activity are (1 ) 
utilization and improvement by cultivation and hybrid- 
ization of native food plants and fruits (Dr. W. 0. 
Blasdale), (2) study of edible fungi (Professor W. T. 
Horne), (3) native and introduced medicinal plants 
(Mr. A. L. Walker), (4) ornamental plants (Professor 
H. E. McMinn). The committee solicits the co-opera- 
tion and assistance of any members of the society who 
are willing to collect information or to undertake ex- 
perimental work. 
WHITE PINE BLISTER RUST. 
Officers of the Forest Service were disturbed last 
spring by the discovery at Monrovia, California, of the 
uredinial and telial stages of a rust on Ribes tenui- 
florum, which could not be distinguished from the cor- 
responding stages of white pine blister rust (Cronar- 
tium ribicola), a fungus which threatens to cause in- 
calculable damage to the white pine forests of New 
^England and the Middle West and has been shown by 
cultural experiments to be capable of developing on 
five-needled species of pines, including Pinus Lamber- 
tiana and P. monticola. Extended explorations by 
scouting parties during the summer showed that the 
rust was widely distributed along the eastern slopes 
of the Sierra Nevada on several species of Ribes, but 
also showed that the aeeial stage of Cronartium occi- 
dentals was to be found over somewhat the same 
range on Pinus monophylla. As the rust last named 
produces uredinial and telial stages on species of 
Ribes, which cannot be distinguished from those of 
Cronartium ribicola, it seems probable that the aecia 
in question belong to Cronartium occidentale, which 
affects pines of the pinon group only, and is of rel- 
atively slight importance economically. It is to be 
hoped that the preventive measures now being insti- 
tuted will protect our sugar pine forests permanently 
from pine rust. 
