Journal of the New York Botanical Garden

              VOL. XXXVI NOVEMBER, 1935 No. 431
JOURNAL
OF
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
A BACTERIAL DISEASE OF DELPHINIUM AJACIS
B. O. DODGE
REMARKABLE VITALITY AMONG PALMS
JOHN K. SMALL
IT PAID TO TREAT THE LAWNS
A GLANCE A T CURRENT LITERATURE
CAROL H. WOODWARD
NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT
PUBLISHED FOR THE GARDEN
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THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
B O A R D O F M A N A G E RS
I. ELECTIVE MANAGERS
Until 1936: ARTHUR M. ANDERSON, HENRY W. DE FOREST ( President),
CLARENCE LEWIS, E. D. MERRILL ( Secretary), HENRY DE LA MONTAGNE, JR.
( Assistant Treasurer), and LEWIS RUTHERFURD MORRIS.
Until 1937: HENRY DE FOREST BALDWIN ( Vice- president), GEORGE S.
BREWSTER, CHILDS FRICK, ADOLPH LEWISOHN, HENRY LOCKHART, JR., D. T.
MACDOUGAL, and JOSEPH R. SWAN.
Until 1938: L. H. BAILEY, MARSHALL FIELD, MRS. ELON HUNTINGTON
HOOKER, JOHN L. MERRILL ( Vice- president and Treasurer), COL. ROBERT H.
MONTGOMERY, H. HOBART PORTER, and RAYMOND H. TORREY.
II. EX- OFFICIO M A N A G E RS
FIORELLO H. LAGUARDIA, Mayor of the City of New York.
ROBERT MOSES, Park Commissioner.
GEORGE J. RYAN, President of the Board of Education.
III. APPOINTIVE MANAGERS
TRACY E. HAZEN, appointed by the Torrey Botanical Club.
R. A. HARPER, SAM F. TRELEASE, EDMUND W. SINNOTT, and MARSTON T.
BOGERT, appointed by Columbia University.
G A R D E N S T A FF
MARSHALL A. HOWE, P H . D., SC. D Director
H. A. GLEASON, P H . D Deputy Director and Head Curator
HENRY DE LA MONTAGNE, JR Assistant Director
JOHN K. SMALL, P H . D., SC. D Chief Research Associate and Curator
A. B. STOUT, P H . D Director of the Laboratories
FRED J. SEAVER, P H . D., SC. D Curator
BERNARD O. DODGE, P H . D Plant Pathologist
FORMAN T. MCLEAN, M. F., P H . D Supervisor of Public Education
JOHN HENDLEY BARNHART, A. M., M. D. . . . Bibliographer and Admin. Assistant
PERCY WILSON Associate Curator
ALBERT C. SMITH, P H . D Associate Curator
SARAH H. HARLOW, A. M Librarian
H. H. RUSBY, M. D Honorary Curator of the Economic Collections
FLEDA GRIFFITH Artist and Photographer
ROBERT S. WILLIAMS Research Associate in Bryology
E. J. ALEXANDER . . . . Assistant Curator and Curator of the Local Herbarium
HAROLD N. MOLDENKE, P H . D Assistant Curator
W. H. CAMP, P H . D Assistant Curator
CLYDE CHANDLER, A. M Technical Assistant
ROSALIE WEIKERT Technical Assistant
CAROL H. WOODWARD, A. B Editorial Assistant
THOMAS H. EVERETT, N. D. HORT Horticulturist
HENRY TEUSCHER, HORT. M Dendrologist
G. L. WITTROCK, A. M Docent
OTTO DEGENER, B. S., M. S Collaborator in Hawaiian Botany
ROBERT HAGELSTEIN Honorary Curator of Myxomycetes
ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM .. Honorary Curator, Iris and Narcissus Collections
WALTER S. GROESBECK Clerk and Accountant
ARTHUR J. CORBETT Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds
JOURNAL
OF
The New York Botanical Garden
VOL. XXXVI NOVEMBER, 1935 No. 431
A BACTERIAL DISEASE OF DELPHINIUM AJACIS
Some time in July this year the writer's attention was directed
to a disease in a bed of Delphinium Ajacis in the border planting
at The New York Botanical Garden. Individual plants here and
there were considerably stunted, showing dead or dying tops.
Their roots and lower leaves appeared to be perfectly healthy.
These stunted plants were then only a few inches tall. Few ever
recovered from the disease, which gradually worked downward
nearly to the base. Such plants were pulled out and destroyed but
the disease continued to spread.
FIGURE I shows two stunted plants with tops somewhat black­ened
or discolored with a soft, rather foul- smelling rot. When
the stems of such plants were split down to the base it was found
that most of the pith had been destroyed and mucilaginous masses
of bacteria soon oozed out from the torn tissues. At the left in
FIGURE 2 is shown the top of a plant which was about a foot high.
All of the leaves and the stem below the part shown here were per­fectly
healthy, only the top being rotted; at least, the base and
root- system were of normal size.
The bacteria must have been at work for considerable time, for
they were present clear down to the crown, but blackening and dis­organization
were confined more to irregular streaks and pockets,
as can be seen in the picture. Another interesting feature was,
usually, the presence of white masses of long thin crystals, which
under the microscope looked much like those described by McCul-loch1
in connection with her studies of Bacterium marginatum, the
scab disease of gladioli.
1 McCulloch, L. A bacterial blight of Gladioli. Jour. Agr. Research 27:
225- 229. 1924.
258
It was seen that we were likely to lose all of the plants in this
bed of Delphinium Ajacis. As an experiment, we sprayed the
plants with Bordeaux mixture and thoroughly soaked the ground
with it. Whether this had any beneficial effect or not, it is a fact
that there was a great improvement, and little further spread. A
fairly good showing of flowers developed. Another small bed
planted out later nearby was not treated. These all died out. Very
likely they were either all infected when transplanted or became in-
FIGURE I. Two plants of Delphinium Ajacis infected with a rather foul-smelling
bacterial disease. The tips of the stems were discolored brownish
or blackish and were soft and watery. The bacteria had invaded the pith
region and the surrounding softer tissues. The stems have been split open
to show the blackening of the infected tissues.
259
FIGURE 2. At the left, top of a plant, the main axis of which had been
killed. At the right, a plant much stunted, its tip- end dead from the soft
rot, the pith somewhat blackened in streaks or patches.
260
fected soon after. Bordeaux mixture has also been recommended
to help control delphinium " blacks." If the bacteria causing the
disease described here enter the plants through either the stomata
or water pores, a covering with Bordeaux mixture would help to
prevent its spreading.
Dr. F. D. Chester, of our laboratory, and Miss Lucia McCul-loch,
of the office of diseases of ornamentals, United States De­partment
of Agriculture, are both studying the disease and will no
doubt have further information concerning the causative organism
and methods for its control. This report is presented merely to
direct attention to the disease and point out some of the differences
between it and the common delphinium " blacks."
The bacterial leaf- spot disease, " the blacks," of varieties of
delphinium, as described by Bryan2 and referred to by Gregory
and Davis3 and by White, 4 is familiar to growers and home gar­deners.
Infection is manifested by the appearance of a number of
irregular black spots on the leaves. These spots may increase in
size, and, by running together, disfigure the leaves considerably.
Leaves may also become curled and otherwise distorted. This dis­ease
is said to infect the blossoms occasionally, and also the stems.
It is not a root- rot disease, although the bacteria live over in the
soil. It is a local spot- disease and not at all inclined to be systemic
even when it is found on the stems.
The sclerotium or root- rot disease, which attacks the feeding
roots and later the main roots and base of the stems, can also
readily be distinguished.
B. O. DODGE.
2 Bryan, M. K. Bacterial leafspot of Delphinium. Jour. Agr. Research
28: 261- 269. 1924.
3 Gregory, C. T., and Davis, J. J. Common garden pests, what they are
and how to control them. 1- 150. 1928. Published by Better Homes and
Gardens, Des Moines, Iowa.
4 White, R. P. Diseases of ornamental plants. New Jersey Agr. Exp.
Sta. Circ. 226: 1- 98. 1931.
26l
REMARKABLE VITALITY AMONG PALMS
( CABBAGE- TREE AND ROYAL- PALM)
Plants are wasteful in many ways. They often produce vast
numbers of leaves, flowers, and fruits, apparently far in excess of
what is necessary for growth, replacement, and distribution. There
are, doubtless, different occult reasons for this apparent prodigality.
In fact, indications pointing to possible reasons for the excess pro­duction
of tissues and organs are sometimes apparently discernible.
During our explorations in Florida, examples of the apparent
excess production of certain tissues in palms came to our attention.
It became evident that palms through long ancestral experiences
have developed different ways of dealing with adverse conditions.
The cabbage- tree ( Sabal Palmetto), for example, is a remark­able
plant in many ways. Among other things, growing as it does
in all kinds of soil, on rock and in water, it exists in many forms.
In fact, the forms are so numerous that they defy classification.
The cabbage- tree is amphibious. Its habitat ranges from per­petual
water to permanently dry rocks. A few examples have
shown the cabbage- tree as an epiphyte. It thrives also in localities
that are dry part of the year and submerged the remaining part.
It will flourish perfectly well where there is periodic change of the
water- level amounting to six feet. This adjustment to varying
depths of water is accomplished by a massive and excessive root
development which extends beyond the normal growth below the
surface of the ground, along the trunk to the highest water level.
Thus, on the lower part of the trunk one may find a solid mass of
roots, in the form of a dome or a cylinder, often six to eight feet
in diameter. When the water is high these tightly packed roots
are evidently active; when it is low, so that they are exposed, they
are, of necessity, dormant. But, protected as they are at the tips
by large root- caps, they stay alive and ready for action as soon as
the water rises again. This palm is not particular as to the kind of
water from which it gets moisture. Fresh or salt, hard or soft, or
even sulphur water— all suit it equally well. The great excess of
stem- tissue sometimes essential for the life of the palm is shown
in the accompanying figures of the cabbage- palm, one of a wild
specimen, the other of a cultivated one.
The plant shown in FIGURE I is growing on rock in Royal Palm
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FIGURE I. In Royal Palm Hammock, Dade County, Florida. A small
cabbage- tree— Sabal Palmetto— growing on plate rock. Fire some years
back had burned part of the base of the trunk and other parts, but par­ticularly
a section of the trunk near the crown. With all this tissue gone,
the tree still thrived.
263
FIGURE 2. A close view of the section of the palm trunk, showing the
car. The mosses and lichens in and about the scar attest that the burn
' as not of recent occurrence— but perhaps a half century ago.
264
Hammock, Dade County, Florida. A fire many years ago burned
out a section of the trunk, leaving about one third of the diameter
intact. The palm continued to grow, showing no additional sign
of the accident, except a slight bend in the trunk due to the lack
of support and to the weight of the crown of leaves— even though
this crown is small because of the tree's growing on plate rock.
The palm not only survived, but stood the brunt of hurricane
winds. FIGURE 2 gives a better idea of the amount of damage done
by the fire. A certain amount of burning is also evident at the
base of the trunk.
The cabbage- tree is often planted along roads in the country and
along streets in towns and cities. FIGURE 3 shows a cabbage- tree
on a street in Crystal River, Florida. The luxuriance of the crown
of leaves— which is always large and heavy in palms grown in
sandy or clay soil— is evident. A box had been placed around the
trunk for its protection from external damage. However, when
the box was removed, much internal damage was evident. Some
gnawing insects1 had been at work reducing the trunk for a long
time. When the photograph was taken scarcely one third of the
diameter of the trunk remained, still the crown of leaves was in
perfect condition. FIGURE 4 gives an idea of how little of the
trunk was left to nourish and support the crown of many leaves.
So much for the stem- system. The root- system is sometimes
interesting. The royal- palm ( Roystonea regia) is not as versatile
as the cabbage- tree in the matter of habitat, but its geographic
range this side of the Gulf Stream is much less extensive. How­ever,
in its restricted range— the southern tip of the Florida penin­sula—
it has shown itself the master of a variety of habitats, among
which are plate rock, sand, marl, dry soil found high above the
maximum water- table; also periodically wet and dry locations and
practically aquatic situations in either fresh water or salt, or at
least brackish water with the salt- saturation requisite for growth
of the mangrove and oyster.
Among various examples of the excessive development of roots,
FIGURES 5 and 6 show graphically a case in point. In FIGURE 6 the
1 " The only insect that I might consider capable of causing such an
amount of destruction is the palm- borer in its larval stage. This rather
large beetle of the weevil family is not rare in Florida."— SIGMUND
GRAENICHER.
26s
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FIGURE 3. On a street in Crystal River, Florida. A cabbage tree— Sabal
Palmetto— whose trunk has been pretty thoroughly eaten away by palm-borers.
About two- thirds of the trunk had been destroyed when the photo
was taken, and the work of destruction was still in progress. The trunk
was protected from mechanical injury by a box, but the insects got in their
work.
266
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FIGURE 4. A section of the trunk of the cabbage- tree shown in FIGURE 3.
The extensive damage to the diameter of the trunk did not have any detri­mental
effect on the large crown of leaves.
267.
upper part of the trunk of a royal- palm felled by hurricane winds
may be seen. This specimen is in Royal Palm Hammock, not far
from the cabbage- tree shown in FIGURE I. The trunk was over
seventy- five feet tall when it stood erect. In Royal Palm Ham­mock
these palms grow on plate rock with little or no soil in which
to anchor, the main anchorage being the slightly and unevenly
weathered surface of the one- time exposed rock. With no place
to bury themselves, the roots are often largely aerial, piled up on
one another in myriad layers, as shown in FIGURE 5. This ex­posed
root- system is not the result of a vacillating water- table, as
it is in the case of the cabbage- tree cited above, but of their peculiar
local habit of living, to be explained presently, in relation to their
associated plants and animals.
The royal- palm is a rapid grower and produces an amazing
amount of tissue— stem, leaves, ferrule, and blades, flowers, and
fruits— from apparently very little nourishment. With little or no
natural soil in their habitat, they themselves make enough to live
on. The rock on which they grow is constantly filled with capil­lary
water. This the palm takes up through those roots that cling
to the rock. After a palm gets a start and grows, the leaves fall
periodically and decay about the base of the trunk. When it
reaches the flowering stage, the flowers and fruits, borne in myri­ads,
fall as do the leaves, and all this matter decays about the base
of the trunk. This is the reason for the aerial or subaerial mass
of roots shown in FIGURE 5, for they are at all times more or less
buried in the mass of debris. As the debris decays, mycorrhizas
doubtless appear to help the palm grow. Furthermore, rodents come
to do their part. As they eat the interior of the fruits, they dis­card
the hulls which soon change into humus, also supplying at
the same time not a little manure, which is very advantageous to
the growth of the plant. Thus the palm grows largely and not so
indirectly by eating itself, and may prosper to tower high above its
broad- leaved hammock associates.
As these palms rise many feet above the hammock roof they are
exposed to the fury of hurricanes and sometimes topple over, as
did the one shown in FIGURE 6, the root mass acting as a large disk
with but one edge on the ground. When the tree fell, at least 80
per cent of the roots were pulled out of their anchorage, leaving
only a small percentage to continue feeding the massive plant. Nat-
268
269
FIGURE 6. The upper part of a fallen royal- palm. In storms these tall
palms with little grip on the plate rook topple over just as toy trees with
flat, disk- like bases, at the same time exposing the root- system to the air,
except for the few roots on one side left in contact with the rock. As
may be seen in the print, the horizontal tip of the crown gradually curved
upward into an erect position, and leaves, flowers, and fruits continued to
grow.
270
urally, new roots began to form in company with those not pulled
out, while those sticking up in the air became inactive. However,
the loss of most of its root- system did not especially bother the
palm in question. It continued not only to grow but to thrive.
The bud strove to assume its natural erect posture, and after a few
years succeeded. The reduced root- system is reflected in the more
than normal tapering of the trunk below the leaf- sheaths. How­ever,
sufficient nourishment was provided to develop the inflor­escence
which is shown in immature form just below the ferrules
of the leaves.
From the foregoing examples it seems that palms make certain
tissues in excess of their needs under ordinary and extraordinary
circumstances.
JOHN K. SMALL.
IT PAID TO TREAT T H E LAWNS
Since the note on Japanese beetles in the October JOURNAL was
written, 1 additional information on the subject has been literally
unearthed by Dr. Dodge. The old story, often reported in State
and Federal bulletins, that arsenate of lead helps to control Japa­nese
beetles in lawns, gains fresh support from a recent sampling
made since the larvae have developed from the eggs laid in August.
There is no denying the conclusion that it paid to treat the lawns,
and it seems apparent that it is now time to give them another
treatment.
In April, 1932, in cooperation with Mr. H. C. Hallock, of the
United States Department of Agriculture, one of our lawns was
staked off in six strips, each 30 feet wide and running the whole
length of this lawn. The first strip was treated with arsenate of
lead, 10 pounds to 1000 square feet, the second with 15 pounds,
and the third strip was left untreated, as a check. The arsenate
for the two strips was applied as a spray and was washed in with
water from a hose. The fourth strip was treated with 10 pounds
per 1000 square feet and the fifth with 15 pounds, the arsenate
being mixed with soil and the mixture spread on as evenly as was
convenient. The sixth strip was again left untreated as a check.
On October 15, 1935, the fourth autumn season since the arse-
1 Dodge, B. O. The Situation Regarding Dutch Elm- disease, the Japa­nese
Beetle, and the Gypsy Moth at The Botanical Garden. 36: 247- 252.
I935-
271
nate was originally applied, 54 sample diggings were made to de­termine
the number of larvae working in the different strips. The
holes were . one foot square and one foot deep. Three holes were
dug in each of the six strips in three different lines across the
lawn, the lines being about 100 feet apart. It was particularly de­sired
to ' learn whether crab- grass to be found chiefly in the two
untreated strips and elsewhere in the neighborhood was correlated
in any way with the arsenate treatment. It was seen that, wherever
the beetles had not been killed and hence had destroyed the good
grass, crab- grass had taken its place in abundance.
The following table gives the number of larvae in the eighteen
sample diggings along each of the three lines across the lawn.
10 lbs.
5, 0, °
6, 1, 2
5, S, 0
15 lbs.
0, 0, 0 .
5, 5, 9
0, 3, 9
untreated
75, o » , 63
53, 80, 67
30, 38, 66
10 lbs.
0, 2, 0
1, i, 0
0, 3, 0
15 lbs.
0, 0, I9b
r, 2, 0
0, 1, 0
untreated
77, 68, 60
oc, 0, 2
61, 66, 7d
a— The location of this digging happened to be a spot where there was
no grass, the soil being yellow and without vegetation, probably due to a
fill in recent years.
b— This digging was practically on the line separating the untreated from
the treated strips.
c— The three diggings in the untreated strip here showed only two
larvae. This is no doubt due to the very dry soil near a hickory tree,
where eggs would not be laid.
d— In the corner under a small maple tree.
It is clear from the data that the treatment was very effective.
The presence of a few larvae in the treated strips might indicate
that it is about time to make another application. Ten sample dig­gings
made in nearby untreated lawns gave an average of 58 larvae
for each cubic foot. In 1932 when the sample diggings were orig­inally
made there were very few Japanese beetle grubs, the larger
percentage being larvae of the brown Asiatic beetle. The reverse
is now the case, the Japanese beetle larvae predominating.
. A GLANCE AT CURRENT LITERATURE1
The latest publication in that excellent project of reproducing
important original botanical papers in facsimile is " Miscellaneous
Papers Regarding Japanese Plants," by C. P. Thunberg. Thun-
1 All publications mentioned here— and many others— may be found in
the library of The New York Botanical Garden, in the Museum Building.
272
berg's " Flora Japonica" has already appeared through this same
Japanese firm, Shokubutsu Bunken, Kanko- Kai, Tokyo. The
present volume includes a collection of scattered theses, with illus­trations,
giving technical descriptions of the native flora.
* * * *
Grasses and other plants brought from Asia to use on the Great
Plains of North America to prevent erosion are now being propa­gated
in nurseries and greenhouses through the West, according
to a report in Science for October 11. As soon as sufficient stock
has been developed, they will be tested by the United States De­partment
of Agriculture in regions where they are needed.
The same issue of Science tells how new trees are now seen from
a distance on inaccessible mountain slopes in Hawaii, as a result of
seeds being scattered from airplanes ten years ago. Areas thus
planted had previously been denuded by forest fires.
* * * *
A biography and critical estimate of the work of Hugo de Vries,
the Dutch biologist, who recently died at the age of 87, appears in
The Journal of Heredity for August. De Vries is most celebrated
for his mutation theory of evolution, which he developed largely
from experiments in the Oenotherae, and which challenged Dar­winism
and led to developments of prime importance in the progress
of biological thought. De Vries likewise altered the conception of
cell mechanics, originated a method for determining molecular
weights of substances, and conducted pioneer researches in the
action of osmotic membranes in living cells. A bibliography of his
works is appended.
* * * *
Several unusually interesting articles on ferns are featured in
recent magazines. In The American Fern Journal for July- Sep­tember,
Rogers McVaugh has a paper on " Spores of Some North­eastern
Ferns" with line drawings and an artificial key. The con­clusion
is that spore characteristics are not reliable for distinguish­ing
species, however authentic for separating genera. In the same
issue " A List of Varieties and Forms of the Ferns of Eastern
North America" by C. A. Weatherby is continued, through Bo-trychium,
Ophioglossum, and Osmunda. In The National Horti­cultural
Magazine for April, Edith A. Roberts writes a well- illus­trated
article on " American Ferns: How to Grow and Use Them."
273
Maps are included, showing the distribution of ferns in the United
States. The Tokyo Botanical Magazine for June describes and
pictures thirteen species and varieties of Dryopteris native to
Japan, with an interesting chart.
* * = H *
" Clematis for the Rock Garden" is the title of a paper reprinted
in pamphlet form from the September Bulletin of the Garden Club
of America, by J. E. Spingarn. Low herbaceous species are espe­cially
mentioned; also two slender climbers from the southern
states, Clematis texensis in its brighter- colored forms, and C. crispa,
whose flowers are pale- pink or lavender. Dr. Spingarn follows
this article with one on " The Clematis Lover's Debt to Japan."
* * * *
Practical pointers on where to look for the trouble when garden
perennials do not prove hardy are briefly given by Stephen F.
Hamblin in Lexington Leaflets for September 28. Soil— both
mechanical and chemical condition, moisture, sun, shade in sum­mer,
shade in winter, snow, thawing, wind, and general climatic
conditions, as well as the habit and natural peculiarities of the
plant, its health, and the region from which it came, are factors
mentioned for their effect on hardiness.
Farm Research, the quarterly paper issued by the New York
Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, entered its second
year of publication October 1 with 12 pages instead of the original
eight. It is hoped in this paper, according to a statement addressed
to the readers in the initial number, to " make clear to the farm con­stituency
of the Experiment Station just what is being done with
the funds appropriated by the State of New York for research at
Geneva and just how you can best realize on this investment in
your Experiment Station." The latest issue contains informative
articles on the commercial production of sauerkraut, detection and
treatment of bean mosaic, the history of the hop industry in New
York State, fall planting of peonies, pollination of grapes, cheese-making,
fruit- breeding, nitrogenous bacteria in the soil, storage of
winter squash, problems of dairy scientists, and insect problems for
Mcintosh apple growers in the Champlain valley.
274
Three thousand men are now at work on a $ 2,500,000 program
to fight the Dutch elm- disease, according to the September For­estry
News Digest, published by The American Tree Association.
The work is being conducted largely, in New York State, New
Jersey, and Connecticut, but scouting will also be done in Pennsyl­vania,
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Louisiana.
Among other forestry notes in this issue are a statement that
four million acres of denuded and cutover land in the north central
region are to be planted with trees in the next ten years, 375,000,-
000 trees to be set out every year; that 120,000,000 trees, the largest
number ever seeded in a government forest nursery, are now grow­ing
in the Chittenden Nursery in Michigan for future planting in
Manistee National Forest; and that seeds of certain types are now
being sown in large numbers by machinery, with a view to speeding
up production of forest trees.
CAROL H. WOODWARD.
NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT
The fourth year of the Science Course for Professional Gar­deners,
offered by The New York Botanical Garden to equip the
student gardeners of the institution and experienced gardeners,
nurserymen and florists from outside with the sciences underlying
their work, opened September 30 with about 65 students enrolled.
Classes meet every Monday evening for twelve weeks, then resume
after Christmas and continue till March.
Dr. W. H. Camp is teaching the 30 or more first- year students
systematic botany. Other instructors are the same as in previous
years: Dr. Forman T. McLean, plant morphology and, the second
term, plant physiology to the beginners, meanwhile giving the sec­ond-
year students a course in soils and fertilizers; Dr. E. P. Felt,
of the Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories, entomology; Dr. A.
B. Stout, plant breeding, and Dr. B. O. Dodge, plant pathology.
The course is conducted in the rooms of the Horticultural Society
of New York.
Forty- three new seedless grapes set fruit this year for the first
time, Dr. A. B. Stout reported last month upon returning from
Geneva, where he is working with the New York Agricultural Ex-
275
periment Station in the breeding of new hardy seedless varieties.
Several of these are promising types, he says, for commercial cul­ture,
and are to be propagated as rapidly as possible. In all, eighty
varieties have borne seedless fruit in the experiments at Geneva.
Dr. W. H. Camp has been appointed an assistant curator at the
Botanical Garden, coming here from Ohio State University, where
he has been teaching botany since 1927. Especially interested in
comparative anatomy, Dr. Camp has done extensive field- work
throughout the United States, and last year he spent considerable
time at the Garden, determining species on which he was working
in the Vacciniaceae. He is interested also in the Fagaceae and
Lemnaceae.
Dr. Fred J. Seaver, Curator of the fungi, recently returned
from Europe where he had been attending the International Bo­tanic
Congress in Amsterdam, Holland, as a delegate from The
Kew York Botanical Garden and also from the Mycological So­ciety
of America. He was one of three Americans to be ap­pointed
a member of the international committee on the nomen­clature
of the fungi. Following the meeting he spent a few days
in Leiden, studying the historic collection of Persoon, one of the
pioneer European mycologists, and went botanizing over the sand
dunes of Holland. Previously, while in Brussels he visited the
Botanical Garden and other institutions of scientific interest. In
addition to attending the scientific meetings Dr. Seaver took this
opportunity to publicize, with substantial results, Mycologia, the
official organ of the Mycological Society of America.
Dr. David H. Linder, in charge of the Farlow Herbarium at
Harvard University, recently spent a few days at the Garden, look­ing
over specimens of fungi preparatory to a monograph of some
of these forms. He took a collection of unnamed material back to
Harvard to be critically studied and determined. He was accom­panied
by Rafael A. Toro, of the University of Puerto Rico, who
is also conducting critical studies in some of the parasitic fungi of
the tropics.
Miss Clyde Chandler, Technical Assistant at The Xew York
Botanical Garden, visited the botanical laboratories of Cornell Uni-
276
versity at Ithaca, N. Y., and the State Agricultural Experiment
Station at Geneva last month to observe especially the technique of
research in cytology being done at these two institutions by Dr.
Barbara McClintock and by Dr. Bernhard R. Nebel and Dr. Mabel
L. Ruttle- Nebel.
Miss Alice Eastwood, who has charge of botanical work for the
California Academy of Sciences, stopped at the Garden last month
on her way back from Europe, where she attended the International
Botanic Congress in Amsterdam.
W. W. Eggleston, assistant botanist for the United States Forest
Service and the Bureau of Plant Industry, was also an October
visitor at the Garden. He was at one time a research scholar at
the Botanical Garden.
Dr. E. J. Schreiner, formerly a student at the Botanical Garden
and more recently co- worker with Dr. A. B. Stout in breeding fast-growing
poplars for reforestation and pulp- production, has gone to
the Tennessee Valley Authority to take charge of tree- breeding
work. He will be working particularly with nut trees.
Dr. A. C. Smith, assistant curator, and Mrs. Smith, after attend­ing
the International Botanic Congress in Holland and traveling
through Finland and the Scandinavian countries, are now in Lon­don,
where he is spending two months doing taxonomic research
work at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.
Continuing the monograph on the genus Carex by the late K. K.
McKenzie, part 6 of volume 18 of North American Flora, compris­ing
pages 313- 392, has appeared this fall.
More than 2,000 cone- bearing trees and shrubs, comprising more
than 250 species and varieties from all parts of the world, have
been presented to the Morris Arboretum of the University of
Pennsylvania, by Colonel Robert H. Montgomery, a member of
the Board of Managers of The New York Botanical Garden.
MEMBERS OF THE CORPORATION
Arthur M. Anderson
• Mrs. Arthur M. Anderson
George Arents, Jr.
• Mrs. George Arents, Jr.
Vincent Astor
John W. Auchincloss
Dr. Raymond F. Bacon
• Mrs. Robert Bacon
Prof. L. H. Bailey
Mrs. James Baird
Stephen Baker
Henry de Forest Baldwin
Sherman Baldwin
Prof. Charles P. Berkey
C. K. G. Billings
George Blumenthal
Prof. Marston T. Bogert
Prof. William J. Bonisteel
George P. Brett
George S. Brewster
• Mrs. Jonathan Bulkley
Dr. Nicholas M. Butler
Prof. Gary N. Calkins
• Mrs. Andrew Carnegie
Prof. W. H. Carpenter
• Miss Mabel Choate
• Miss E. Mabel Clark
W. R. Coe
Richard C. Colt
• Mrs. Jerome W. Coombs
Charles Curie
• Mrs. C. I. DeBevoise
Henry W. de Forest
Moreau Delano
Rev. Dr. H. M. Denslow
Julian Detmer
• Mrs. Charles D. Dickey
• Mrs. John W. Draper
Benjamin T. Fairchild
Marshall Field
William B. 0 . Field
Harry Harkness Flagler
• Mrs. Mortimer J. Fox
Childs Frick
• Miss Helen C. Frick
* Mrs. Carl A. de Gersdorff
Murry Guggenheim
Edward S. Harkness
Prof. R. A. Harper
T. A. Havemeyer
A. Heckscher
• Mrs. A. Barton Hepburn
Capt. Henry B. Heylman
Mrs. Christian R. Holmes
• tMrs. Elon H. Hooker
Dr. Marshall A. Howe
Archer M. Huntington
Adrian Iselin
Pierre Jay
• Mrs. Walter Jennings
• Mrs. Delancey Kane
• § Mrs. F. Leonard Kellogg
• Mrs. Gustav E. Kissel
Clarence Lewis
Adolph Lewisohn
Frederick J. Lisman
Henry Lockhart, Jr.
• Mrs. William A. Lockwood
Dr. D. T. MacDougal
• Mrs. David Ives Mackie
Mrs. H. Edward Manville
George McAneny
Parker McCollester
• Mrs. John R. McGinley
Dr. E. D. Merrill
John L. Merrill
• Mrs. Roswell Miller, Jr.
Ogden L. Mills
George M. Moffett
H. de la Montagne, Jr.
Col. Robert H. Montgomery
Barrington Moore
Mrs. William H. Moore
J. Pierpont Morgan
Dr. Lewis R. Morris
Dr. Robert T. Morris
B. Y. Morrison
Prof. Henry F. Osborn
Chas. Lathrop Pack
• Mrs. Augustus G. Paine
• Mrs. James R. Parsons
Rufus L. Patterson
• Mrs. Wheeler H. Peckham
• Mrs. George W. Perkins
Howard Phipps
James R. Pitcher
H. Hobart Porter
• Mrs. Harold I. Pratt
• Mrs. Henry St. C. Putnam
Stanley G. Ranger
Johnston L. Redmond
Ogden Mills Reid
John D. Rockefeller
Prof. H. H. Rusby
Hon. George J. Ryan
• Mrs. Herbert L. Satterlee
John M. Schiff
• Mrs. Arthur H. Scribner
Prof. Edmund W. Sinnott
• Mrs. Samuel Sloan
Dr. John K Small
James Speyer
Col. J. E. Spingarn
Mrs. Charles H. Stout
Nathan Straus, Jr.
• Mrs. Theron G. Strong
Joseph R. Swan
B. B. Thayer
Dr. William S. Thomas
Charles G. Thompson
Raymond H. Torrey
Prof. Sam F. Trelease
• Mrs. Harold McL. Turner
Felix M. Warburg
Allen Wardwell
William H. Webster
• Mrs. Louise Beebe Wilder
•|| Mrs. Nelson B. Williams
Bronson Winthrop
Grenville L. Winthrop
John C. Wister
• Mrs. William H. Woodin
Richardson Wright
• Member also of the Advisory Council.
t Chairman of the Advisory Council.
II Secretary of the Advisory Council.
STreasurer of the Advisory Council.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Some of the leading features of The New York Botanical Garden
are:
Four hundred acres of beautifully diversified land in the northern part
of the City of New York, through which flows the Bronx River. A native
hemlock forest is one of the features of the tract.
Plantations of thousands of native and introduced trees, shrubs, and
flowering plants.
Gardens, including a new rock garden, a large rose garden, a perennial
border, small model gardens, and other types of plantings.
Greenhouses, containing thousands of interesting plants from America
and foreign countries.
Flower shows throughout the year— in the spring, summer, and autumn
displays of daffodils, tulips, lilacs, irises, peonies, roses, water- lilies, dahlias,
and chrysanthemums; in the winter, displays of greenhouse- blooming
plants.
A museum, containing exhibits of fossil plants, existing plant families,
local plants occurring within one hundred miles of the City of New York,
and the economic uses of plants; also historic microscopes.
An herbarium, comprising more than 1,700,000 specimens of American
and foreign species.
Exploration in different parts of the United States, the West Indies,
Central and South America, for the study and collection of the character­istic
flora.
Scientific research in laboratories and in the field into the diversified
problems of plant life.
A library of botanical and horticultural literature, comprising nearly
45,000 books and numerous pamphlets.
Public lectures on a great variety of botanical topics, continuing
throughout the autumn, winter and spring.
Publications on botanical subjects, partly of technical, scientific, and
partly of popular, interest.
The education of school children and the public through the above fea­tures
and the giving of free information on botanical, horticultural and
forestral subjects.
The Garden is dependent upon an annual appropriation by the City of
New York, private benefactions, and membership fees. Applications for
membership are always welcome. The classes of membership are:
Benefactor single contribution $ 25,000
Patron single contribution 5,000
Fellow for Life single contribution 1,000
Member for Life single contribution 250
Fellowship Member annual fee 100
Sustaining Member annual fee 25
Annual Member annual fee 10
Garden Club Membership annual fee for a club 25
Contributions to the Garden may be deducted from taxable incomes. Bequests
may be made in the form of securities, money, or additions to the collections. The
following is an approved form of bequest:
/ hereby bequeath to The New York Botanical Garden incorporated under
the Laws of New York, Chapter 285 of 1891, the sum of .
Conditional bequests may be made with income payable to donor or any
designated beneficiary during his or her lifetime.
Fellowships or scholarships either in perpetuity or limited to a definite period
may be established for practical student- training in horticulture or for botan­ical
research.
All requests for further information should be sent to
T H E NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
BRONX PARK, FORDHAM BRANCH P. O., NEW YORK, N. Y.