gled with the true Mongoloid Malays throughout the Oceanic domain (Indian and Pacific Oceans). But my object here is merely to establish my priority claim for the American readers of Science, who are referred to the above quoted monograph for the detailed treatment of these interesting questions. A. H. KEANE.

79 Broadhurst Gardens, South Hampstead, N. W., July 21.

Sound and Color.

WITHOUT in the least doubting the accuracy of Dr. Wallian's curious observations respecting the appearance of color about the heads of public speakers, I would just suggest the possibility of another explanation.

I have myself frequently observed, when listening to various preachers, a patch of rich blue color near to the head of the speaker. I have always attributed this, however, to the wellknown effect upon the retina of fatigue from the continued impression of one color giving rise to a phantasm of the complementary color. The face of a speaker is some tint of flesh color. The eye of the listener is fixed upon the face, and in a short time the complementary phantasm makes its appearance, always some tint of blue or purple, according to the complexion of the speaker.

This will not, of course, explain all the phenomena mentioned by Professor Underwood and Dr. Wallian, but it is a factor which should not be forgotten in discussing the subject. Leicester, England.

BOOK-REVIEWS.

F. T. MOTT.

A Biographical Index of British and Irish Botanists. By JAMES BRITTEN and G. S. BOULGER. London, West, Newman & Co., 1893. 203 p.

MESSRS. Britten and Boulger have republished in book form their "Index of British and Irish Botanists." The matter originally appeared in the Journal of Botany from 1888 until 1891, but in 203 pages of the reprint a large amount of additional material is

Delicious

Drink.

Horsford's Acid Phosphate

with

given. This is shown by the fact that 1,825 names are given in the volume, against 1,619 given in the Journal of Botany. In a succinct form and by means of a series of readily understood abbreviations there are given the dates of birth and of death, place of birth and death, place of burial, indication of social position or occupation, university degrees or titles or offices held, and dates of election to the Linnæan and Royal societies. Mention is also made of the whereabouts of any correspondence or MSS. and the existence of any herbarium or plants collected. Various biographical dictionaries, where further information may be obtained, are also referred to. Any portrait, original or engraved, and any genus, or, failing this, any species, dedicated to the person, is mentioned. From this it will be seen that a large amount of information is gathered within a small compass, and the volume will be of great assistance in looking up facts relative to any one of the 1,825 names included within its pages.

Washington, D. C., July 22.

JOSEPH F. JAMES.

AMONG THE PUBLISHERS.

HANN & ADAIR, Columbus, O., announce "A History of the German Language from the Earliest Times to the Present Day," by Chas. W. Super, president of the Ohio University at Athens. The purpose of the author has been to write a book that may be read with interest and profit by persons whose knowledge of German does not extend beyond the rudiments. It has been his aim to make duly prominent the common origin of the English and German languages and to use many facts of the former to elucidate those of the latter, so far as it can be done within the space at command. The book also discusses incidentally some phenomena common to all civilized tongues. By the same author is "Weil's Order of Words in the Ancient Languages Compared with that of the Modern Languages," published by Ginn & Co., Boston, Mass.

Wants.

WANTED Panorpidae, Myrmeleoninae, and lit

erature on the same. Chas. C. Adams, Bloomington, Ill.

sion will hold an examination on August 15 to fill a WANTED Assistant in Nautical Almanac office, Navy Department. The Civil Service Commisvacancy in the position of assistant (computer) in letter-writing, penmanship, trigonometry, rudithe Nautical Almanac office. The subjects will be ments of analytical geometry and calculus, logarithms, theory and practice of computations, self with a five-place logarithmic table. The exand astronomy. Each applicant must provide himamination will be held in Washington, and if applications are filed in season, arrangements may be made for examinations in the large cities. Blanks will be furnished upon application to the Commis

invigorating drink.

Allays the thirst, aids tion, and relieves the lassitude so common in midsummer.

Dr. M. H. Henry, New York, says: "When completely tired out by prolonged wakefulness and overwork, it is of the greatest value to me. As a beverage it possesses charms beyond anything I know of in the form of medicine."

Descriptive pamphlet free. Rumford Chemical Works, Providence, R. I. Beware of Substitutes and Imitations.

RAFTSMEN WANTED.-The Civil Service Comfill two vacancies in the War Department; one in the position of architectural draftsman, salary $1,400, the other in the position of assistant draftsman, Quartermaster General's office, salary $1,200. The subjects of the architectural draftsman examination are letter-writing, designing specifications and mensuration, and knowledge of materials; of the assistant draftsman examination they are letter-writing, tracing, topographic drawing and projections. The examination will be held in Washington, and if applications are filed in season, arrangements may be made for examinations in the large cities. Blanks will be furnished upon application to the Commission at Washington."

Dission will hold examinations on August 18 to

THE

American Bell Telephone

COMPANY.

125 MILK ST., BOSTON, MASS.

This Company owns the Letters - Patent

No. 186,787, granted to Alexander Graham Bell, January 30th, 1877, the scope of which has been defined by the Supreme Court of the United States in the following terms:

"The patent itself is for the mechanical

structure of an electric telephone to be used

to produce the electrical action on which the

LIGHTNING DESTROYS!

Shall it be your house or a pound of copper?

Entirely new departure in pro

tecting buildings from lightning.

QUERY.

Can any reader of Science cite a case of lightning stroke in which the dissipation of a small conductor (one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, say,) has failed

use instruments of a diaphragm, made of a plate of iron or steel, or other material capable of inductive action; the fifth, of a permanent magnet constructed as de

nearest the plate; the sixth, of a sounding box as described; the seventh, of a speaking or hearing tube as described for conveying the sounds; and the eighth, of a permanent magnet and plate combined. The claim is not for these several things in and of them

Correspondence solicited. Agents wanted.

found which show that when the conductor is dissipated the building is not injured to the extent explained (for many of these see volumes of Philosophical Trans

construction of which these things or any of them are used."

This Company also owns Letters-Patent No. 463,569, granted to Emile Berliner, No

874 Broadway, New York City.

ning was attracting the attention of the Royal Society), but not

and Telephone, and controls Letters-Patent No. 474,231, granted to Thomas A. Edison,

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY.

There is an opening for a young man to open a New York office of the American Lightning Protection Co., operating under my patents. But little capital will be required.

N. D. C. HODGES, 874 BROADWAY, NEW YORK

SOFTLY STEALS THE LIGHT OF DAY when filtered through windows covered with

CRYSTOGRAPHS,

a substitute for Stained Glass that is inexpensive, beautiful, and easily applied.

20c. per square foot. Samples and catalogue, 10c.

CRYSTOGRAPH CO.,

316 North Broad St., Philadelphia.

IV. THE CHEROKEES IN PRE-CO-N. D. C. HODGES, 874 BROADWAY, N. Y.

"BUSY FOLKS' GYMNASIUM."

A few minutes' daily exercise on our fascinating apparatus clears the brain, tones up the body, develops weak parts. Our cabinet contains chest weights, rowing-weights, lifting-weights, clubs and dumb bells, adjustable for old and young. It is the only complete exercising outfit in the world suitable for use in living rooms. All prices. You can order on approval. Chest machine separate, $4.50 and up. good for Round Shoulders. Educated agents wanted. PHYSI

CAL CULTURE CHART, with illustrated directions for developing every part of the body healthfully, 50 cts. Sent for half price to those naming this paper.

WHITNEY HOME GYMNASIUM CO., Box D., Rochester, N. Y.

85

SINGLE COPIES, TEN CENTS.

$3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE.

USEFUL HAND-BOOKS.

The Ornamental Penman's Pocketbook of Alph. bets, for sign-writers, engravers, stone-cutters and draftsmen, 20 cts. A System of Easy Lettering, by Howard Cromwell, 50 cts. Practical Electrics: Universal Handybook on Every-day Electrical Matters, 135 pp., fully illustrated, 12mo, cloth, 75 cts. Notes on Design of Small Dynamo, by G. Halliday, 79 pp., with a number of plates to scale, 12mo, cloth,

86

Notes and News..

86

The Atmosphere

Liveing

87

Fish Acclimatization on the Pacific Coast. H. M. Smith..

Palenque Hieroglyphics. Ph. J. J. Valentini... Humboldt and Brazil..

Technical Education. Alexander Meek.

91

93

New Store.
New Stock.

New Departments.

Send for our "Winter Bulletin," recently issued. Minerals, Gems, Microscopical Sections, Fine Lapidary Work.

GEO. L. ENGLISH & CO., Mineralogists,

97

NEW METHOD OF PROTECTING BUILDINGS FROM LIGHTNING. SPARE THE ROD AND SPOIL THE HOUSE! Lightning Destroys. Shall it be Your House or a Pound of Copper?

PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING.
What is the Problem ?

IN seeking a means of protection from lightning-discharges, we have in view two objects,-the one the prevention cf damage to buildings, and the other the prevention of injury to life. In order to destroy a building in whole or in part, it is necessary that work should be done; that is, as physicists express it, energy is required. Just before the lightning-discharge takes place, the energy capable of doing the damage which we seek to prevent exists in the column of air extending from the cloud to the earth in some form that makes it capable of appearing as what we call electricity. We will therefore call it electrical energy. What this electrical energy is, it is not necessary for us to consider in this place; but that it exists there can be no doubt, as it manifests itself in the destruction of buildings. The problem that we have to deal with, therefore, is the conversion of this energy into some other form, and the accomplishment of this in such a way as shall result in the least injury to property and life.

Why Have the Old Rods Failed?

When lightning-rods were first proposed, the science of energetics was entirely undeveloped; that is to say, in the middle of the last century scientific men had not come to recognize the fact that the different forms of energy heat, electricity, mechanical power, etc.- were convertible one into the other, and that each could produce just so much of each of the other forms, and no more. The doctrine of the conservation and correlation of energy was first clearly worked out in the early part of this century. There were, however, some facts known in regard to electricity a hundred and forty years ago; and among these were the attracting power of points for an electric spark, and the conducting power of metals. Lightning-rods were therefore introduced with the idea that the electricity existing in the lightning-discharge could be conveyed around the building which it was proposed to protect, and that the building would thus be saved.

The question as to dissipation of the energy involved was entirely ignored, naturally; and from that time to this, in spite of the best endeavors of those Interested, lightning-rods constructed in accordance with Franklin's principle have not furnished satisfactory protection. The reason for this is apparent when it is considered that the electrical energy existing in the atmosphere before the discharge, or, more exactly, in the column of dielectric from the cloud to the earth, above referred to, reaches its maximum value on the surface of the conductors that chance to be within the column of dielectric; so that the greatest display of energy will be on the surface of the very lightningrods that were meant to protect, and damage results, as so often proves to be the case.

It will be understood, of course, that this display of energy on the surface of the old lightning-rods is aided by their being more or less insulated from the earth, but in any event the very existence of such a mass of metal as an old lightning-rod can only tend to produce a disastrous dissipation of electrical energy upon its surface,-" to draw the lightning," as it is so commonly put.

Is there a Better Means of Protection?

Having cleared our minds, therefore, of any idea of conducting electricity, and keeping clearly in view the fact that in providing protection against lightning we must furnish some means by which the electrical energy may be harmlessly dissipated, the question arises, "Can an improved form be given to the rod so that it shall aid in this dissipation ? "

year a complete and interesting course in German grammar. $2 a year. Single copies 20 cents. P. O. Box 151, Manchester, N. H.

As the electrical energy involved manifests itself on the surface of conductors, the improved rod should be metallic; but, instead of making a large rod, suppose that we make it comparatively small in size, so that the total amount of metal running from the top of the house to some point a little below the foundations shall not exceed one pound. Suppose, again, that we introduce numerous insulating Joints in this rod. We shall then have a rod that experience shows will be readily destroyed-will be readily dissipated - when a discharge takes place; an 1 it will be evident, that, so far as the electrical energy is consumed in doing this, there will be the less to do other damage.

The only point that remains to be proved as to the utility of such a rod is to show that the dissipation of such a conductor does not tend to injure other bodies in its immediate vicinity. On this point I can only say that I have found no case where such a conductor (for instance, a bell wire) has been dissipated, even if resting against a plastered wall, where there has been any material damage done to surrounding objects.

Of course, it is readily understood that such an explosion cannot take place in a confined space without the rupture of the walls (the wire cannot be boarded over); but in every case that I have found recorded this dissipation takes place just as gunpowder burns when spread on a board. The objects against which the conductor rests may be stained, but they are not shattered, I would therefore make clear this distinction between the action of electrical energy when dissipated on the surface of a large conductor and when dissipated on the surface of a comparatively small or easily di-sipated conductor. When dissipated on the surface of a large conductor, a conductor so strong as to resist the explosive effect,-damage results to objects around. When dissipated on the surface of a small conductor, the conductor goes, but the other objects around are saved

A Typical Case of the Action of a Small Conductor. Franklin, in a letter to Collinson read before the London Royal Society, Dec. 18, 1755, describing the partial destruction by lightning of a church-tower at Newbury, Mass., wrote, "Near the bell was fixed an iron hammer to strikc the hours; and from the tail of the hammer a wire went down through a small gimlet-hole in the floor that the bell stood upon, and through a second floor in like manner; then horizontally under and near the plastered ceiling of that second floor, till it came near a plastered wall; then down by the side of that wall to a clock, which stood about twenty feet below the bell. The wire was not bigger than a common knitting needle. The spire was split all to pieces by the lightning, and the parts flung in all directions over the square in which the church stood, so that nothing remained above the bell. The lightring passed between the hammer and the clock in the above-mentioned wire without hurting either of the floors, or having any effect upon them (except making the gimlet-holes, through which the wire passed, a little bigger), and without hurting the plastered wall, or any part of the building, so far as the aforesaid wire and the pendulum-wire of the clock extended; which latter wire was about the thickness of a goose-qull. From the end of the pendulum, down quite to the ground, the builling was exceedingly rent and damaged. No part of the aforementioned long, small wire, between the clock and the hammer, could be found, except about two inches that hung to the tail of the hammer, and about as much that was fastened to the clock; the rest being exploded, and its particles dissipated in smoke and air, as gunpowder is by common fire, and had only left a black smutty track on the plastering, three or four inches broad, darkest in the middle, and fainter towards the edges, all along the ceiling, under which it passed, and down the wall." One hundred feet of the Hodges Patent Lightning Dispeller (made under patents of N. D. C. Hodges, Editor of Science) will be mailed, postpaid, to any address, on receipt of five dollars ($5).

Correspondence solicited. Agents wanted. AMERICAN LIGHTNING PROTECTION CO., 874 Broadway, New York City.

Littell's Living Age,

THE ONLY WEEKLY ECLECTIC. 1844. 1893. "The Oldest and the Best." It selects from the whole wide field of EUROPEAN PERIODICAL LITERATURE the best articles by THE ABLEST LIVING WRITERS In every department of Literature, Science, Politics and Art. OPINIONS.

"Only the best has ever filled its pages; the best thought rendered in the purest English. Nothing poor or unworthy has ever appeared in the columns of THE LIVING AGE."-The Presbyterian, Phila.

"Considering its size, it is the cheapest of literary periodicals, and no collection of magazine literature is complete without this foremost of eclectics."-Educational Courant, Louisville, Ky.

"It is one of the few periodicals which seem indispensable. It contains nearly all the good literature of the time."-The Churchman, New York.

"The fields of fiction, biography, travel, science, poetry, criticism, and social and religious discussion all come within its domain."-Boston Journal.

"To read it is itself an education in the course of modern thought and literature."- Buffalo Commercial Advertiser.

Published WEEKLY at $8.00 a year, free of postage.

Every reader of "Science" should sub- Club Rates. -For $10.15 THE LIVING scribe for the

AMERICAN ARCHITECT,

THE OLDEST AND BEST

AGE and SCIENCE will be sent for a year, postpaid.

Rates for clubbing THE LIVING AGE with other periodicals will be sent on application.

Sample copies of THE LIVING AGE, 15 cents each. Address,

Architectural publication in the country. Littell & Co., 31 Bedford St., Boston, Mass. Interesting articles on architecture, Sanitation, Archæology, Decoration, etc., by the ablest writers. Richly illustrated. Issued weekly. Send stamp for specimen copy to the publishers,

BRENTANO'S,

Publishers, Importers, Booksellers.

Ticknor & Co., 211 Tremont St., Boston. branches of science, and in all languages.
We make a specialty of technical works in all
Subscriptions taken for all American and foreign
scientific periodicals.

1869.

THE

1893.

Our Paris and London branches enable us to im

Manufacturer and Builder. port at shortest notice and lowest prices. REPORTS

OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES, MONOGRAPHS, GOVERNMENT REPORTS, etc. Correspondence solicited.

Published Monthly. A handsomely illustrated meAll books reviewed in SCIENCE can be ordered chanical journal, edited by DR. WILLIAM H. WAHL. Every number consists of 48 large quarto pages and from us. SEND FOR A SAMPLE COPY OF BOOK CHAT. A Monthcover, filled with useful information on all subjects of a practical nature. Specimen copy free. For ly Index of the Periodical Literature of the World. sale by all newsdealers. Agents wanted every- $1.00 per year. where. Address HENRI P. O. Box 1001.

RACES AND PEOPLES.

By DANIEL G, BRINTON, M.D.

"The book is good, thoroughly good, and will long remain the best accessible elementary ethnography in our language."-The Christian Union.

"We strongly recommend Dr. Brinton's Races and Peoples' to both beginners and scholars. We are not aware of any other recent work on the science of which it treats in the English language." -Asiatic Quarterly.

"His book is an excellent one, and we can heartily recommend it as an introductory manual of ethnology."-The Monist.

"A useful and really interesting work, which deserves to be widely read and studied both in Europe and America."-Brighton (Eng.) Herald.

"This volume is most stimulating. It is written with great clearness, so that anybody can understand, and while in some ways, perforce, superficial, grasps very well the complete field of humanity."The New York Times.

"Dr. Brinton invests his scientific illustrations and measurements with an indescribable charm of narration, so that 'Races and Peoples,' avowedly a record of discovered facts, is in reality a strong stimulant to the imagination."-Philadelphia Public Ledger.

"The work is indispensable to the student who requires an intelligent guide to a course of ethnographic reading."-Philadelphia Times.

Price, postpaid, $1.75.

THE AMERICAN RACE.

By DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D.

"The book is one of unusual interest and value."Inter Ocean.

"Dr. Daniel G. Brinton writes as the acknowledged authority of the subject."-Philadelphia Press. "The work will be of genuine value to all who wish to know the substance of what has been found out about the indigenous Americans."-Nature. "A masterly discussion, and an example of the -Philadelphia Ledger.

Chicago, Washington, London, Paris.

LIGHT, HEAT AND POWER.

THE INDEPENDENT GAS JOURNAL OF AMERICA.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT PHILADELPHIA.

Subscription, $3.00 per year.

RESTORE YOUR EYESIGHT

Cataracts, scars or films can be absorbed and paralyzed nerves restored, without the knife or risk. Diseased eyes or lids can be cured by our home treatment. "We prove it." Hundreds convinced. Our illustrated pamphlet, Home Treatment for Eyes," free. Don't miss it. Everybody wants it. "THE EYE," Glens Falls, N.Y.

The Boston Medical and

Terms of Subscription: In the United States, and to Canada and Mexico, $5 00 a year in ad vance. To Foreign Countries embraced in the Universal Postal Union, $1.56 a year additional. Single numbers, 15c. Ten consecutive numbers free by mail on receipt of $1.00.

This JOURNAL circulates chiefly through the New England States, and is seen by the great majority of the profession in that important district. As a means of reaching physicians it is unequalled.

It is under the editorial management of Dr. George B. Shattuck, assisted by a large staff of competent coadjutors. Subscriptions and advertisements received by the undersigned, to whom remittances by mail should be sent by money-order, draft or registered letter.

Price, postpaid, $2.

N. D. C. HODGES,

874 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

Pennsylvania Bedford Springs Mineral Water

For Liver, Kidney and B dder Troubles.
For Gravel, Gall Stones, Jaundice.
For Dyspepsia, Rheumatism and Gout..
For Dropsy, Bright's Disease, Diabetes."
For Hemorrhoids, Etc.

It has been used medicinally and prescribed by physicians for nearly one hundred years.

DIRECTIONS:-Take one or two glasses about a half-hour before each meal.

Case One Dozen Half-Gallon Bottles, $4.50.
Case Fifty Quarts (Aerated), $7.50.

Bedford Mineral Springs Co., Bedford, Pa.
Philadelphia Office, 1004 Walnut St.

BUILDING BOOKS.

DRAWING

1893 Catalogue

of Books on Building, Painting, and Decorating, also Catalogue of Drawing Instruments and Ma. terials, sent free on application to

Wm. T. Comstock, 23 Warren St., New York.

NEW YORK, AUGUST 18, 1893.

BOTANY IN JAMAICA.

BY JAMES ELLIS HUMPHREYS.

WE are apt to think, when speaking of American botany and botanists, only of those of the United States and Canada, assuming that our southern neighbors, both continental and insular, have not yet reached that stage of civilization that encourages the cultivation of the sciences. And so far as those regions are concerned which have felt the influence chiefly of Latin civilization, this is measurably true. But some of the neighboring islands have been under Anglo-Saxon rule for two centuries or more, and have felt different influences. Not, indeed, that their people, as a class, have been much affected by contact with their rulers, but in the British islands the mother country has especially fostered botanical study from an early time, and British residents have carried with them the scientific impulse.

Jamaica has been a British colony for fully two hundred years, and it is now more than one hundred since its first botanic garden was established at Bath. At first privately supported, it afterward received spasmodic government support. But eventually the site was abandoned and a new location was chosen beside the Wag water and among the beautiful hills of the interior nineteen miles north of Kingston. From this time the support of the government was constant and effective, and the Castleton garden grew steadily in consequence, under competent directors sent out from England. It has now an especially notable collection of palms and orchids, besides its economic collection.

Meantime the Hope Gardens, near Gordon Town, and six miles from Kingston, begun for private pleasure when the island was in the full tide of its prosperity from the profits of sugar and rum, have been taken up by the government and are destined to be the chief botanical centre of the island. This collection is newer than that at Castleton and therefore does not possess as many fine specimens and, in some other respects, does not equal it. But most of the propagating and active work of the department is now done at the Hope Gardens. As must inevitably be the case with most government establishments, the chief work of the Botanical department of Jamaica, as of other British colonies, is economic, the study of the useful plants of the colony, their propagation and products. Its work is at present ably directed by Mr. William Fawcett, F. L. S., formerly of the British Museum.

A third establishment in charge of the department is the experimental Cinchona plantation far up the Blue Mountains. Here, also, is the official residence of the Director, in an almost ideal location and climate. Indeed, it is said, to quite justify the enthusiasm of an admirer, who called it "the loveliest spot in the British empire." This place, called Cinchona, can be reached only by a narrow bridle-path that runs twelve miles upward into the heart of the mountains from Gordon Town.

The department issues a periodical bulletin of the results of its work.

Ever since the time of Patrick Bowne and Sir Hans Sloane, the higher plants of the island have found devoted

students. And among them must be specially mentioned Grisebach, whose "Flora of the British West Indies," London, 1863, remains the only hand-book of the subject. But the Thallophytes of the region have received little attention and offer a very attractive field.

The wife of the present energetic governor of the island, Sir Henry Blake, some time since proposed the raising of a fund to establish a permanent marine biological laboratory as a memorial to Columbus, who landed on the island on his second voyage. The idea is an admirable one, but the project remains, so far as can be learned, in statu quo. A small and well-equipped laboratory at a suitable point on the island, open to the zoölogists and botanists of the world, might be of the greatest service in affording means for the collection and preservation of the numberless tropical forms of life in which Jamaica and the surrounding waters abound. A party of zoologists from the Johns Hopkins University has this year, for the second time, established a temporary laboratory at Port Henderson on Kingston harbor; but I understand that this choice of a location has been largely governed by the presence of suitable accommodations. It will be agreed that, in determining the site for a permanent laboratory, the abundance of available vegetable, as well as animal, life should be consulted. After a somewhat careful examination of the marine flora of the easterly part of the island, as far west as St. Ann's Bay, the writer can say that several of the ports on the north side are far more favorable, botanically, than Kingston harbor. And perhaps no region is, on the whole, more favorably situated or richer in its vegetation than the neighborhood of Port Antonio. This port has more frequent communication with the United States than even Kingston, from its extensive fruit trade. And the journey from Europe to Jamaica is less monotonous and less expensive, as well as quite as quick, via the United States, as by the Royal Mail from England.

Another factor of considerable importance lies in the much cooler and more healthful climate of the north side of the island, as compared with the south side.

In Jamaica, then, the botanist finds evidences of past and present activity in certain lines, and the sympathy and aid of fellow workers. It is much to be hoped that he may soon be able to find, also, the laboratory facilities, which will enable him to study to the best advantage the unsolved problems of tropical vegetation.

INTRODUCTION OF WEEDS IN GRASS SEED.

BY THOMAS A. WILLIAMS, STATE AGR'L COLLEGE, BROOKINGS, S. D.

In the course of some experiments on forage plants, which were begun last season on the Station grounds, quite a large quantity of grass and clover seed was purchased from various seedsmen, principally from Hendersons, of New York. At the time of sowing some of the packages were found to contain more or less seed of various weedy plants. The plots were watched closely, and the following plants were found to have been introduced:

Cruciferae. Nasturtium palustre, (L.) D. C.; Sisymbrium officinale, (L.) Scop; Camelina sativa, (L.) Crantz; Brassica arvensis (L.) B. S. P.; Brassica alba, (L.) Gray; Brassica nigra, (L.)Koch; Brassica campestris, L.; Erysimum cheiranthoides, L.; Erysimum orientale (?) L.; Diplotaxis tenui