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Vol. I JANUARY, 1900 No. 1 JOURNAL The New York Botanical Garden EDITOR DANIEL TREMBLY MACDOUGAL Director of the Laboratories CONTENTS The Museum Building ( with illustration) Cooperative Forestry Etiolated Plants as Food ( with figure) . Mycorhizas of Orchids ( with figure) . . Colors Recent Accessions Bequest of Judge Daly . . . Notes, News, and Comment Page i 5 6 7 io 12 13 PUBLISHED FOR THE GARDEN THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY, 41 North Queen Street, Lancaster, Pa. O F F I O E R S , 1 9 0 0. PRESIDENT— D. O. MILLS, VICE- PRESIDENT— ANDREW CARNEGIE, TREASURER— CHARLES F. COX, SECRETARY— N. L. BRITTON. B O A R D OF- M A N A G E R S . 1. ELECTED MANAGERS. ANDREW CARNEGIE, D. O. MILLS, CHARLES F. COX, J. PIERPONT MORGAN, W. BAYARD CUTTING, JAMES A. SCRYMSER, WILLIAM E. DODGE, SAMUEL SLOAN, JOHN I. KANE, W. GILMAN THOMPSON, SAMUEL THORNE. 2. FA - OFFICIO MANAGERS. THE PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC PARKS, HON. GEO. C. CLAUSEN. THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, HON. R. A. VAN WYCK. 3. SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORS. HON. SETH LOW, CHAIRMAN. HON. ADDISON BROWN, PROF. J. F. KEMP, PROF. C. F. CHANDLER, HON. J. J. LITTLE, PROF. L. M. UNDERWOOD. G A R D E N S T A F F . DR. N. L. BRITTON, Director- in- Chief. DR. D. T. MACDOUGAL, First Assistant. DR. JOHN K. SMALL, Curator of the Museums. DR. P. A. RYDBERG, Assistant Curator. SAMUEL HENSHAW, Head Gardener. GEORGE V. NASH, Curator of the Plantations. ANNA MURRAY VAIL, Librarian. DR. H. H. RUSBY, Curator of the Economic Collections. COL. F. A. SCHILLING, Superintendent. WALTER S. GROESBECK, Clerk and Accountant. JOURNAL OF The New York Botanical Garden VOL. I. JANUARY, 1900. No. 1. THE MUSEUM BUILDING. WITH PLATE I. The Museum Building, which stands on a slight elevation, seven hundred feet east of the Bedford Park railway station of the Harlem Division, New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, is the largest, most elegant, most satisfactorily illuminated, and for its purposes the best adapted of any similar edifice in the world. The technical requirements are met in a thorough unhindered method. The architectural treatment is frank and dignified. The style is Italian Renaissance, with details of scholarly character ; its imposing front has a length of 308 feet, and its height to the top of the dome is 110 feet. The construction is fireproof throughout; the steel framework has been most carefully designed to withstand all strains that will properly be put upon it; the central portico is of Indiana limestone with columns and cornices of Corinthian order and the curtain walls have pilasters of the same order. The walls are of brick and terra cotta of the same color as the stone, which is a light gray, nearly white ; the floors are built up of hollow terra cotta, ash- concrete and a " terrazo- granito " surface, and the walls and columns are finished in hard patent plaster, all ironwork having double plaster fireproofing on two layers of steel lath. The basement floor is of concrete and asphalt, to secure water- proof and air- proof surfaces. The roof is of hollow brick, asphalt and tiles. The windows are ample, being, on the main museum floors, of greater width and about the same area as the intervening piers, this having been made a special feature of the design from its inception. The building is heated by steam through mains lying in a subway extending from the power- house, which stands near the railroad just west of the Southern Boulevard entrance to the Garden from Bedford Park village. The altitude of the basement floor above sea level is 90 feet. The basement contains a large lecture theatre, under the west wing, arranged so as to seat about 700 persons. The broad path connecting the Museum Building with the plaza in front of the railway station, leads directly to this room, affording easy access from the trains and trolley- cars in any kind of weather. Arrangements for stereopticons are made so that lectures may be amply illustrated by lantern slides ; a course of public lectures on Botany and allied sciences will be commenced in this room during the present year. Just east of the lecture theatre are two spacious halls designed for various purposes for which ample room is required, such as flower exhibitions, special exhibits and the like ; they are both available for permanent museum halls in case they are needed ; one of them will needs be used for some time as a preparation and storage-- room. The eastern end of the basement contains several smaller rooms for janitors and offices, a mechanic's room, and a constant temperature room constructed with double walls and doors. The first floor of the building is devoted to the Museum of Economic Botany, and in it are now being installed specimens illustrating the useful products of plants, and specimens, drawings and photographs of the plants yielding them. This collection will be arranged by products, the east hall being given over to drugs, the west hall to timbers and woods, and the two intervening halls to fibers, foods, resins, oils, sugars, starches, poisons, utensils, gums, waxes and other substances. The second floor contains the General Museum, designed to exhibit types of all the families and tribes of plants from the most simple to the most complex. The series will thus commence with the slime- moulds ( Myxomycetes) and end with the thistle family ( Compositae). Illustration of the types is accomplished by prepared specimens of the plants themselves, by drawings, photographs, models, fruits, seeds and other parts ; the preserva- tive formalin solution being freely used in glass jars. Fossil plants are shown in this collection along with the living ones to which they are most nearly related. A system of swinging frames will exhibit a specially mounted herbarium of plants growing naturally within one hundred miles of New York. Special exhibits of physiological and morphological features of plants are to be subsequently installed upon this floor. About one- third of the case equipment required to fill the halls of the first and second floors has been put in position ; additional cases may be added as the need for them arises. The method of labelling in all the collections is designed to answer all ordinary questions about the specimens and their relationships; after the several series have been more completely installed than is possible during the formative stage it is designed to publish hand guides in which the description of the objects will be elaborated. The mounting and labelling of many thousand specimens will be required in order to make the series measurably complete, and this will require time, but it is believed that the collections will be of much interest from the beginning. The third floor has the library as its central feature consisting of a large reading room immediately under the dome and a stack room just behind, shelved so as to carry about 10,000 volumes. The stacks are of metal, arranged to carry books of quarto and octavo size, or smaller, above, and of folio size below ; these are supplemented by a series of folio cases in the centre of the room, the tops of which serve as tables. There is floor space sufficient for a considerable increase in the number of cases, and the floor itself has been constructed strong enough to permit the construction of another series of cases on top of those now in position, thus affording the possibility of doubling the book- carrying capacity of the room. The reading room walls may also be shelved in the future, if it is so desired. The number of volumes now in the collection is about 7,500, of which about two- thirds are the botanical library of Columbia University, deposited with the Garden under an agreement between the Board of Managers and the Trustees of the University, while one- third are the property of the Garden. West of the library rooms are laboratories for plant embryology, plant morphology, plant physiology, plant chemistry and photography, together with a physiological dark room and a photographic dark room. East of the Library are the laboratories for taxonomy. The equipment of all these laboratories with tables, cases and chairs is in place, and the instrumental equipment is being received. The herbarium occupies the east wing of this floor, together with two smaller adjoining rooms ; the herbarium of Columbia University is arranged along the west side of this hall, and that of the garden along the east side, the total number of mounted specimens contained in the two collections being over 600,000 ; over 50,000 additional specimens, not yet mounted, are in storage, but work in arranging and mounting them is going forward rapidly ; it is hoped that all will be available for study during the present year. The main Museum halls are open to visitors from nine o'clock in the morning to five in the afternoon on every day of the week ; access to the third floor may be obtained by permission ; students properly prepared to prosecute investigations are afforded room and guidance in the laboratories, library and herbarium, but it is not designed to offer courses of elementary or secondary instruction, already well provided for in the schools and colleges, other than through the system of public lectures already referred to. In . locating the Museum Building attention has been paid to its possible future enlargement by wings extending back from the part now constructed, permitting a doubling of its present size without interfering with roads, paths or plantations. A photograph from the architect's design, showing this conception, was printed in Bulletin No. 3. The photograph from which the print accompanying this account was engraved was taken November 22, 1899, from a point about half- way between the building and the railway station. It will be seen from this that much work remains to be done on the surroundings ; this consists in grading and the construction of the driveway and path approaches to the front central portico the building of the fountain designed to occupy the space within the outer curved retaining wall of the front approach, and of a parapet retaining wall around the terrace which surrounds the building, which is now being brought to a grassed slope awaiting the opportunity for providing the final finish. The Museum is artificially lighted by gas, but the walls and floors are tubed and the gas- fixtures provided with electric attachments, so that wires may be provided in the future. The elevators and ventilating apparatus are operated by electricity provided by a dynamo in the power house, where there is space for additional dynamo equipment for furnishing light, in case this should prove the most desirable method of obtaining it. There is a fine water- pressure throughout the building, notwithstanding its height, provided by the proximity of the Williamsbridge reservoir and a thirty- six- inch main therefrom which runs through the valley in front of the edifice. The total cost of the building, together with its furniture equipment, has been about £ 300,000, which, considering its size, and the high character of the work of construction is believed to be very reasonable. It was designed by Mr. R. W. Gibson, Architect, and built by the John H. Parker Company. The funds were provided by the City, under the authority of the Garden Act of Incorporation. The construction has been under the immediate supervision of Park Commissioner August Moebus, and of his Chief Engineer, Mr. Daniel Ulrich, and the thanks of all in any way interested in the work are due to these gentlemen for their care and solicitude that it should be carried out in the best manner possible. N. L. BRITTON. COOPERATIVE FORESTRY. The division of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture is prepared so far as its very limited appropriation will permit to render practical assistance to farmers and others by cooperating with them to establish forest plantations, woodlots, shelterbelts and windbreaks. A section of the division has been recently organized and placed in charge of an expert tree planter, assisted by a number of collaborators and assistants residing in the different states, who are thoroughly familiar with the local conditions. This section will devote itself entirely to investigations in tree planting, and to the assistance of those who may avail themselves of the cooperative plan outlined in circular No. 22. Applications for such assistance will be considered in the order of their receipt, but the Division reserves the right to give preference to those likely to furnish the most useful object lessons. After an application has been made and accepted, the Superintendent of Tree Planting, or one of his collaborators or assistants, will visit the land of the applicant, and, after adequate study of the ground will make a working plan suited to its particular conditions. The purpose of this plan is to give help in the selection of trees, information in regard to planting and instruction in handling forest trees after they are planted. This plan is undoubtedly one of the most useful and valuable ever undertaken by the Division of Forestry. The growing of forest trees cannot be accomplished successfully without the possession of some knowledge of their habits, and their suitability to the place where they are to be grown. The grower must know what to plant, how to plant it, and how to care for it afterward, and the Division undertakes to supply this information. Persons wishing to avail themselves of the cooperation of the Division should apply early in November of each year, and this cooperation is given free on areas of five acres and less. Under the provisions of an offer made in October, 1898, the Division is cooperating in the management of 400,000 acres of private woodlands. ETIOLATED PLANTS AS FOOD. The possibilties of another " etiolated " plant forced in darkness is indicated by Professor Card in a bulletin from the R. I. Experiment Station ( Bulletin 55, June, 1899). Rhubarb, like nearly all hardy herbaceous plants, may be forced in a darkened greenhouse or cellar in midwinter if taken from the soil in December. The product obtained in this manner is described as a superior article of food to that grown in daylight. When the stems of a plant are to be used as food it is certainly reasonable that some method of culture should be adopted which would retard the development of the mechanical tissue, and this is secured by growth in darkness. An increased proportion of that forced in winter will probably be cultivated in this manner. FIG. I. Showing large leaf blades of rhubarb fortned in light, and small ones in darkness. From block loaned by R. I. Experiment Station. The botanical interest in Professor Card's experiments centers in the development of the leaves in darkness, which the author describes as being very small and of a bright cherry or oxblood color. Furthermore, this color is brighter and deeper in specimens growing under the lower temperatures of the forcing house, a fact in accordance with the recent conclusions of Overton on the relations of temperature and red colors. ( See p. II.) MYCORHIZAS OF ORCHIDS. The roots and underground organs of more than sev. en hundred species of orchids have been examined, and all of this number are found to have formed unions with fungi in such a manner as to form mycorhizas. A mycorhiza consists of the structure resulting from the attachment of the fungus to the roots or absorbing organs of a higher plant in such manner that the association results in benefit to both. The tube- like threads of the fungus generally gain entrance to the roots while they are young, and grow forward, as the root extends in length, in the tissues just underneath the epidermis. Branches of the tubes or hyphae are sent out through the root- hairs into the soil, and the: two plants work in partnership to accomplish nutrition. The' fungus takes up the products of decaying leaves and organic matter in the soil, carries them into the root, yielding the greater • portion to the higher plant, which may actually get all of its food from its minute associate. Some of this food, however, is built up into starch and sugar, which is given back to the fungus. The higher plant thus take the crude material given it by the fungus and makes it into substances which the fungus is unable to construct, but which form a very valuable food for it. In addition to this advantage to the fungus the root offers it a habitat in which it is free from many dangers it would encounter in the soil. The nicety of attention necessary to the successful culture of most orchids is doubtless due to the fact that not only must the proper conditions of water and temperature be offered the higher plant, but its unseen associate must be provided with exactly the proper soil and food. The fungi which inhabit the hanging roots of the epiphytic orchids bear the same relation to them, though many inexperience writers have described them as parasites. By the cooperation of the fungus the orchid is relieved from the fierce struggle to win its food from the soil necessary to unaided species, and the great variations and marked characteristics of the leaves and flowers of this group may be due in part to its method of nutrition. Although not generally known, the variations of the underground organs are almost as great as those of the aerial parts. Thus the coralroots ( Corallorhisas) have lost their roots entirely, and the underground coralloid formations which gives them their name, are really short branches serving the purpose of roots and inhabited by a fungus. Some of the FIG. 2. a, old corm of Aplectrum from which have sprung three young plants by coralloid offsets, b, normal specimen. Reproduced by permission from The Annals of Botany, March, i8gg. 10 near relatives of the coralroots show a tendency to construct similar underground branches, especially Aplectrum and Calypso. If one digs up a specimens of Aplectrum he will find an old corm of last year's growth connected by an offset an inch long with a young corm which sends up a leaf in the autumn. The fungus which lives in the roots of the old corm travels through this offset and down into the new roots formed at its tip when it begins to enlarge to make the young corm. Now, if the growth of the offset should be disturbed, or if it should not be properly nourished from the old corm, it develops air of the latent buds along its sides into coralloid branches, with hairs through which the Fungus sends tubes out into the soil and brings in a supply of material. The leaves which spring from offsets developed in this manner are much narrower than the ordinary forms. The clumps of Aplectrum which grow alongside a decaying log, or which have found footing in the remains of one are very apt to make these coralloid formations, or they may be produced at the will of the experimenter, if old corms are separated from the plant and made to germinate the latent buds. About two hundred specimens of this plant are now growing in a single plantation in the New York Botanical Garden, and a number have the narrow leaves indicative of the curious underground stems or branches of the offsets. The appearance of the normal plant, and a clump with the coralloid formations is shown in figure 2. COLORS. The subject of colors is a most prolific one and is unfortunate in the character of some of the literary production which it incites. A paper recently distributed by F. T. Mott, F. R. G. S., of Leicester, England, " On the Origin of Organic Color," which seems to be a reprint of a paper printed in Science in 1893, and of another read before the British Association in the same year, is the most noticeable of the recent vintage. The tenor of this paper maybe gained from the following quotations : " An animal 11 which spends its life in proximity to the brown bark of trees will be under the influence of the molecular rhythm of such bark and may have its own molecular rhythm gradually modified by sympathetic action, or it may entirely resist such modification according to its fundamental molecular structure." There are such possibilities in this idea, in the mind of the author, that he supposes " that the beauty of the summer as we know it now, though it has never been paralleled in the past, will be as nothing in the blaze of brilliance which shall mark the summers of the future." Speculations of this character are harmless and also useless. Mr. E. Williams Hervey has recently issued a pamphlet of over a hundred pages in which he records a large number of original observations on color. As the author in this case says in his preface, " These ( colors) offer a somewhat novel subject for inquiry. There is very little literature on the subject, and a portion of that is open to grave criticism," one is quite prepared to find a repetition of well worn observations. Some interesting facts in the occurrence of color markings are recorded, however. The author very correctly ascribes a minor influence to the agency of animals in the development of pigmented tissues, though the logic by which this conclusion is reached rests upon facts not conceded by botanists. The recent researches of Overton on the red cell- sap of plants shows that its occurrence is conditioned upon the presence of sugar, and that the depth of the tints depends upon the concentration of the sugar. Low night temperatures induce the development of such colors, which the author believes accounts for the reddish coloration of alpine species, and to the same cause1 are due the yellowish- red tints of evergreen leaves during the winter. If two plants of the ordinary bladderwort ( Utricularia) are grown in separate dishes of water containing different proportions of sugar, the relation of this substance to color production can be verified. A paper by Miss Grace Smith was read before the Society of Plant Morphology and Physiology at New Haven, December 27, 12 1899, < n which she records her observations on red color in New England plants. 250 of 750 species exhibited red color in some form. The color was found in stems in 74 per cent, of the species, and it is most prevalent on upper surfaces. Miss Smith's record of the most abundant occurrence of the color on specimens in dry sunny places is quite at variance with the conclusions of Overton, and leaves much to be yet explained. RECENT ACCESSIONS. Mr. William E. Dodge of the Board of Managers has presented the institution with twenty- five exhibition microscopes to be used as part of the permanent display in the museum. These instruments are being constructed after a model recently designed by members of the staff. The New York Academy of Medicine is the donor of the greater part of the botanical books of the library of the late Dr. Hosack, amounting to over two hundred volumes, nearly all of which are publications of the last century or earlier, and are rare and difficult to obtain. The addition of these books to the library of the Garden is an interesting reminder of the efforts of Dr. Hosack to establish a botanical garden in New York City early in the century. Mr. John J. Crooke of Staten Island has given a very valuable collection of herbarium and museum specimens accumulated by him some thirty or forty years ago. These specimens are now being mounted, labelled, and incorporated in the general collection. They include a set of Elihu Hall's Plantae Texanae, the most noteworthy collection of plants from that district ever made, a set of the specimens obtained by the Wilkes' Expedition to the Pacific Ocean, and numerous others now impossible to secure except in some such manner. Mr. Crooke, it will be remembered, has been a most generous patron of the botanical department of Columbia University; having presented that institution with the invaluable herbarium of Professor Frederic Meisner of Basel, Switzerland, and the col- 13 lection made by Dr. Chapman in the southern Atlantic States, upon which his " Flora of the Southern States " is based. The deposit of the Columbia herbarium at the Garden thus brings, all of the botanical collections in which Mr. Crooke has been interested together in one building, and emphasizes the fact that he has been one of the most liberal scientific benefactors of botany in New York. His gifts of geological, conchological, and other zoological specimens to the Museum of Natural History have also-greatly enriched the collections of that institution. Mr. B. G. Amend has recently presented a collection of more than two hundred original drawings and unpublished quarto lithograph plates made by the late Professor August Koehler, which were designed to illustrate a work on the flora of North America. Professor Koehler published a " Practical Botany" in 1876, which was widely used in botanical instruction at that period. Mr. Harlan P. Kelsey has presented a valuable and interesting collection of hardy perennials, shrubs and trees, mainly from the Southern Alleghanies, including some seventy species not hitherto represented in the plantations. These have been distributed in the herbaceous grounds, fruticetum and nurseries. Mr. Nathaniel Thayer, of South Lancaster, Mass., has presented a very large Cycas rcvohita and two immense century plants ; these, together with a considerable number of other tender plants contributed by several other friends have been stored in the basement of the museum building awaiting the completion of the western end of the range of greenhouses, which will not be delayed much longer. BEQUEST OF JUDGE DALY. The following is extracted from the will of Ex- Chief Justice Charles P. Daly, probated October 23, 1899. Article 8, Section 3. I give, devise and bequeath to my executor, Henry R. Hoyt, the sum of twenty thousand dollars, in trust, nevertheless, to invest and reinvest the same, and to pay over the net annual interest, dividends or income thereof to my 14 wife's sister, Rosalie Staples, semi- annually for and during the term of her natural life, and upon her death to pay over the said principal sum to the New York Botanical Garden. Section 5. All the balance of the said rest, residue and remainder of my estate which shall remain after the payment of the foregoing devises, legacies and bequests in this eighth article of my will specified, I give, devise and bequeath as follows : One-twelfth part thereof to the New York Botanical Garden as and for a memorial of my wife's late grandfather, David Lydig, the amount of said bequest to be used and expended by said corporation in such manner and for such purposes as the Board of Managers thereof rtlay deem for the best interests of the Botanical Garden. NEWS, NOTES AND COMMENTS. The Torrey Botanical Club has appointed a committee to prepare a programme in commemoration of the life and work of Dr. John Torrey, to be presented before Section G, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at its meeting in New York, in the last week of June, 1900. The agencies which most affect and prevent the proper development of trees in large cities are electricity, gas and steam. The death of many specimens can be referred to illuminating gas. If a leak occurs into a pipe, the gas escapes very readily into the soil especially if it is porous, and when it comes into contact with the roots they are asphyxiated, the result being qnickly manifest in the appearance of the tree. The symptoms of gas poisoning are most generally a sudden falling of the leaves, a deadened appearance of the bark due to the collapse of the cambium or living layer. In mild instances of poisoning the effect shows only upon one side of the tree, but in general the tree seldom escapes death. Many trees on the grounds of city residences are killed by gas to the perplexity of the owner, since this may occur with specimens fifty or even a hundred feet away from the nearest gas main.— Adapted from the eleventh annual report of the Botanist of the Hatch Experiment Station. 15 Mr. J. B. S. Norton has published a list of the works treating of the effects of wind upon plants in the Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, for 1898, which includes about 60 titles. He classes the effects of winds upon plants under the following heads: A. Indirect, such as 1. Carrying moisture in the form of clouds which supply-plants with water. 2. Aiding transpiration by change of moist for dry air. The effects of hot winds might be placed here. B. Direct effects. 1. Injuries, such as breaking and uprooting. 2. Adaptations for using the wind. a. In effecting pollination. b. In the dissemination of fruits and seeds. Adaptations protective. 3. Adaptative protection against the wind. a. In wood structure. b. In leaf structure. c. In habit. d. In location. This work was done in connection with some studies of the effects of the tornado of 1896 on the trees of the Missouri Botanical Garden and St. Louis. The Botanical Garden at Buitenzorg, Java, has recently established an additional publication in the form of a bulletin, making the sixth series issued from that institution. The " Annals," the " Bulletin " and the " Icones Bogorienses " are devoted chiefly to technical papers, while the other three are intended for the administration and constituency of the garden. According to the description by Dr. Treub, the Director, the garden is organized in ten divisions : herbarium and museum, laboratories for botany, experimental garden and laboratory for agricultural chemistry, laboratory for pharmacology, botanic garden, administration library and photographic department, 16 forestry, laboratory for the study of tobacco, laboratory for the study of coffee, and laboratory for agricultural zoology. The garden proper has an area of 401 acres, and the mountain garden 700 acres. The library contains 9230 volumes and 2860 pamphlets. The library of the Royal Society of Natural Science with 10,800 volumes is also accessible to workers in the garden. The herbarium amounts to more than a hundred thousand specimens, and the museum contains a large amount of material of scientific and economic interest. Special laboratories are provided for the use of visiting botanists and so far 75 investigators have used the facilities provided, of which but one was from the United States. It is of interest to note that a division of meteorology is contemplated as a necessary adjunct to the work in plant physiology. Mr. R. S. Williams, who spent the seasons of 1898 and 1899 in the Yukon Territory is now serving as a special museum aid at the Garden. He made extensive collections of preserved plants of the region, which are now being studied by him and members of the staff. This plant collection is believed to be the first one made in the Klondike region and it contains many species of great scientific interest; an account of it together with an; enumeration of the species is being prepared by the Director- in-chief. After a complete set of the material has been filed in the: herbarium, the duplicates will be distributed to correspondents oft the Garden. Mr. A. A. Heller has returned to Puerto Rico to extend his collections made in 1899. He will keep the field during January and February, with headquarters at Mayaguez in the western part of the island. Four botanical organizations will convene in New York during the last week in June, 1900 : the Botanical Society of America, the Botanical Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Botanical Club of the same Association, and the Society for Plant Physiology and Morphology. The last named will meet for business purposes only. flDeinbera of tbe Corporation. DR. TIMOTHY F. ALLEN, PROF. N. L. BRITTON, FREDERIC BRONSON, HON. ADDISON BROWN, WM. L. BROWN, ANDREW CARNEGIE, PROF. CHAS. F. CHANDLER, WM. G. CHOATE, HON. EDWARD COOPER, CHAS. F. Cox, JOHN J. CROOKE, W. BAYARD CUTTING, WM. E. DODGE, DR. WM. H. DRAPER, PROF. SAM'L W. FAIRCHILD, GEN. LOUIS FITZGERALD, RICHARD W. GILDER, HON. THOMAS F. GILROY, PARKE GODWIN, HON. HUGH J. GRANT, HENRY P. HOYT, ADRIAN ISELIN, J R ., MORRIS K. JESUP, JOHN I. KANE, EUGENE KELLY, JR., PROF. JAMES F. KEMP, WM. JOHN S. KENNEDY, J. J. LITTLE, HON. SETH LOW, DAVID LYDIG, EDGAR L. MARSTON, D. O. MILLS, J. PIERPONT MORGAN, THEO. W. MYERS, GEO. M. OLCOTT, PROF. HENRY F. OSEORN, OSWALD OTTENDORFER, JAMES R. PITCHER, RT. REV. HENRY C. POTTER, PERCY R. PYNE, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, WM. ROCKEFELLER, PROF. H. H. RUSBY, WM. C. SCHERMERHORN, JAMES A. SCRYMSER, HENRY A. SIEBRECHT, SAMUEL SLOAN, WM. D. SLOANE, ' NELSON SMITH, DK. W. GILMAN THOMPSON, SAMUEL THORNE, PROF. L. M. UNDERWOOD, H. S. WOOD. P X J B L I C ^ T T O J V S OF The New York Botanical Garden Journal of the New York Botanical Garden, monthly, illustrated, containing notes, news and non- technical articles of general interest. Free to all members of the Garden. To others, io cents a copy; $ 1.00 a year. [ Not offered in exchange.] Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden, containing the reports of the Director- in- Chief and other official documents, and technical articles embodying the results of investigations carried out in the Garden. Nos. 1- 4, 294 pp., 3 maps, and 8 plates, 1S96- 99. Free to all members of the Garden. To others, 25 cents a copy. Memoirs of the N ew York Botanical Garden, Vol. I. An Annotated Catalogue of the Flora of Montana and the Yellowstone Park, by Dr. Per Axel Rydberg, assistant curator of the museums. An arrangement and critical discussion of the Pteridophytes and Phanerogams of the region with notes from the author's field book and including descriptions of over a hundred new species. Price to members of the Garden, $ 1.00. To others, $ 2.00. [ Not offered in exchange.] Contributions from the New York Botanical Garden. A series of technical papers written by students or members of the staff, and reprinted from journals other than the above. No. 1. Symbiosis and Saprophytism, by Dr. D. T. MacDougal. Price, 25 cents. No. 2. New Species from western United States, by Dr. Per Axel Rydberg. Price, 25 cents. No. 3. The dichotomous Panicums: some new Species, by Geo. V. Nash, Price, 25 cents. No. 4. Delphinium Carolinianum and related Species, by Dr. Per Axel Rydberg, Price, 25 cents. All subscriptions and remittances should be sent to THE ACCOUNTANT NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN BRONX PARK, N E W YORK cm
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Contributor | New York Botanical Garden |
Date | 1900-01 |
Description-Table Of Contents | The Museum Building (with illustrations); Cooperative Forestry; Etiolated Plants as Food (with figure); Mycorhizas of Orchids (wilh figure); Colors; Recent Accessions; Bequest of Judge Daly; Notes, News and Comment. |
Format | application/pdf |
Format-Extent | 51 v. : ill. ; 25 cm |
Identifier | 0885-4165 |
Language | eng |
Publisher | Bronx : New York Botanical Garden, 1900-1950 |
Relation-Is Part Of | Journal of the New York Botanical Garden : v. 1, no. 1-v. 51, no. 612 |
Relation-IsVersionOfURI | http://opac.nybg.org/record=b1104879 |
Rights | http://www.nybg.org/library/ |
Subject | Plants--Periodicals; Gardening--Periodicals; Plants, Cultivated--Periodicals; New York Botanical Garden--Periodicals. |
Title | Journal of the New York Botanical Garden |
Volume, Number | Vol. 1, no. 1 |
Type | text |
Transcript | Vol. I JANUARY, 1900 No. 1 JOURNAL The New York Botanical Garden EDITOR DANIEL TREMBLY MACDOUGAL Director of the Laboratories CONTENTS The Museum Building ( with illustration) Cooperative Forestry Etiolated Plants as Food ( with figure) . Mycorhizas of Orchids ( with figure) . . Colors Recent Accessions Bequest of Judge Daly . . . Notes, News, and Comment Page i 5 6 7 io 12 13 PUBLISHED FOR THE GARDEN THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY, 41 North Queen Street, Lancaster, Pa. O F F I O E R S , 1 9 0 0. PRESIDENT— D. O. MILLS, VICE- PRESIDENT— ANDREW CARNEGIE, TREASURER— CHARLES F. COX, SECRETARY— N. L. BRITTON. B O A R D OF- M A N A G E R S . 1. ELECTED MANAGERS. ANDREW CARNEGIE, D. O. MILLS, CHARLES F. COX, J. PIERPONT MORGAN, W. BAYARD CUTTING, JAMES A. SCRYMSER, WILLIAM E. DODGE, SAMUEL SLOAN, JOHN I. KANE, W. GILMAN THOMPSON, SAMUEL THORNE. 2. FA - OFFICIO MANAGERS. THE PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC PARKS, HON. GEO. C. CLAUSEN. THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, HON. R. A. VAN WYCK. 3. SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORS. HON. SETH LOW, CHAIRMAN. HON. ADDISON BROWN, PROF. J. F. KEMP, PROF. C. F. CHANDLER, HON. J. J. LITTLE, PROF. L. M. UNDERWOOD. G A R D E N S T A F F . DR. N. L. BRITTON, Director- in- Chief. DR. D. T. MACDOUGAL, First Assistant. DR. JOHN K. SMALL, Curator of the Museums. DR. P. A. RYDBERG, Assistant Curator. SAMUEL HENSHAW, Head Gardener. GEORGE V. NASH, Curator of the Plantations. ANNA MURRAY VAIL, Librarian. DR. H. H. RUSBY, Curator of the Economic Collections. COL. F. A. SCHILLING, Superintendent. WALTER S. GROESBECK, Clerk and Accountant. JOURNAL OF The New York Botanical Garden VOL. I. JANUARY, 1900. No. 1. THE MUSEUM BUILDING. WITH PLATE I. The Museum Building, which stands on a slight elevation, seven hundred feet east of the Bedford Park railway station of the Harlem Division, New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, is the largest, most elegant, most satisfactorily illuminated, and for its purposes the best adapted of any similar edifice in the world. The technical requirements are met in a thorough unhindered method. The architectural treatment is frank and dignified. The style is Italian Renaissance, with details of scholarly character ; its imposing front has a length of 308 feet, and its height to the top of the dome is 110 feet. The construction is fireproof throughout; the steel framework has been most carefully designed to withstand all strains that will properly be put upon it; the central portico is of Indiana limestone with columns and cornices of Corinthian order and the curtain walls have pilasters of the same order. The walls are of brick and terra cotta of the same color as the stone, which is a light gray, nearly white ; the floors are built up of hollow terra cotta, ash- concrete and a " terrazo- granito " surface, and the walls and columns are finished in hard patent plaster, all ironwork having double plaster fireproofing on two layers of steel lath. The basement floor is of concrete and asphalt, to secure water- proof and air- proof surfaces. The roof is of hollow brick, asphalt and tiles. The windows are ample, being, on the main museum floors, of greater width and about the same area as the intervening piers, this having been made a special feature of the design from its inception. The building is heated by steam through mains lying in a subway extending from the power- house, which stands near the railroad just west of the Southern Boulevard entrance to the Garden from Bedford Park village. The altitude of the basement floor above sea level is 90 feet. The basement contains a large lecture theatre, under the west wing, arranged so as to seat about 700 persons. The broad path connecting the Museum Building with the plaza in front of the railway station, leads directly to this room, affording easy access from the trains and trolley- cars in any kind of weather. Arrangements for stereopticons are made so that lectures may be amply illustrated by lantern slides ; a course of public lectures on Botany and allied sciences will be commenced in this room during the present year. Just east of the lecture theatre are two spacious halls designed for various purposes for which ample room is required, such as flower exhibitions, special exhibits and the like ; they are both available for permanent museum halls in case they are needed ; one of them will needs be used for some time as a preparation and storage-- room. The eastern end of the basement contains several smaller rooms for janitors and offices, a mechanic's room, and a constant temperature room constructed with double walls and doors. The first floor of the building is devoted to the Museum of Economic Botany, and in it are now being installed specimens illustrating the useful products of plants, and specimens, drawings and photographs of the plants yielding them. This collection will be arranged by products, the east hall being given over to drugs, the west hall to timbers and woods, and the two intervening halls to fibers, foods, resins, oils, sugars, starches, poisons, utensils, gums, waxes and other substances. The second floor contains the General Museum, designed to exhibit types of all the families and tribes of plants from the most simple to the most complex. The series will thus commence with the slime- moulds ( Myxomycetes) and end with the thistle family ( Compositae). Illustration of the types is accomplished by prepared specimens of the plants themselves, by drawings, photographs, models, fruits, seeds and other parts ; the preserva- tive formalin solution being freely used in glass jars. Fossil plants are shown in this collection along with the living ones to which they are most nearly related. A system of swinging frames will exhibit a specially mounted herbarium of plants growing naturally within one hundred miles of New York. Special exhibits of physiological and morphological features of plants are to be subsequently installed upon this floor. About one- third of the case equipment required to fill the halls of the first and second floors has been put in position ; additional cases may be added as the need for them arises. The method of labelling in all the collections is designed to answer all ordinary questions about the specimens and their relationships; after the several series have been more completely installed than is possible during the formative stage it is designed to publish hand guides in which the description of the objects will be elaborated. The mounting and labelling of many thousand specimens will be required in order to make the series measurably complete, and this will require time, but it is believed that the collections will be of much interest from the beginning. The third floor has the library as its central feature consisting of a large reading room immediately under the dome and a stack room just behind, shelved so as to carry about 10,000 volumes. The stacks are of metal, arranged to carry books of quarto and octavo size, or smaller, above, and of folio size below ; these are supplemented by a series of folio cases in the centre of the room, the tops of which serve as tables. There is floor space sufficient for a considerable increase in the number of cases, and the floor itself has been constructed strong enough to permit the construction of another series of cases on top of those now in position, thus affording the possibility of doubling the book- carrying capacity of the room. The reading room walls may also be shelved in the future, if it is so desired. The number of volumes now in the collection is about 7,500, of which about two- thirds are the botanical library of Columbia University, deposited with the Garden under an agreement between the Board of Managers and the Trustees of the University, while one- third are the property of the Garden. West of the library rooms are laboratories for plant embryology, plant morphology, plant physiology, plant chemistry and photography, together with a physiological dark room and a photographic dark room. East of the Library are the laboratories for taxonomy. The equipment of all these laboratories with tables, cases and chairs is in place, and the instrumental equipment is being received. The herbarium occupies the east wing of this floor, together with two smaller adjoining rooms ; the herbarium of Columbia University is arranged along the west side of this hall, and that of the garden along the east side, the total number of mounted specimens contained in the two collections being over 600,000 ; over 50,000 additional specimens, not yet mounted, are in storage, but work in arranging and mounting them is going forward rapidly ; it is hoped that all will be available for study during the present year. The main Museum halls are open to visitors from nine o'clock in the morning to five in the afternoon on every day of the week ; access to the third floor may be obtained by permission ; students properly prepared to prosecute investigations are afforded room and guidance in the laboratories, library and herbarium, but it is not designed to offer courses of elementary or secondary instruction, already well provided for in the schools and colleges, other than through the system of public lectures already referred to. In . locating the Museum Building attention has been paid to its possible future enlargement by wings extending back from the part now constructed, permitting a doubling of its present size without interfering with roads, paths or plantations. A photograph from the architect's design, showing this conception, was printed in Bulletin No. 3. The photograph from which the print accompanying this account was engraved was taken November 22, 1899, from a point about half- way between the building and the railway station. It will be seen from this that much work remains to be done on the surroundings ; this consists in grading and the construction of the driveway and path approaches to the front central portico the building of the fountain designed to occupy the space within the outer curved retaining wall of the front approach, and of a parapet retaining wall around the terrace which surrounds the building, which is now being brought to a grassed slope awaiting the opportunity for providing the final finish. The Museum is artificially lighted by gas, but the walls and floors are tubed and the gas- fixtures provided with electric attachments, so that wires may be provided in the future. The elevators and ventilating apparatus are operated by electricity provided by a dynamo in the power house, where there is space for additional dynamo equipment for furnishing light, in case this should prove the most desirable method of obtaining it. There is a fine water- pressure throughout the building, notwithstanding its height, provided by the proximity of the Williamsbridge reservoir and a thirty- six- inch main therefrom which runs through the valley in front of the edifice. The total cost of the building, together with its furniture equipment, has been about £ 300,000, which, considering its size, and the high character of the work of construction is believed to be very reasonable. It was designed by Mr. R. W. Gibson, Architect, and built by the John H. Parker Company. The funds were provided by the City, under the authority of the Garden Act of Incorporation. The construction has been under the immediate supervision of Park Commissioner August Moebus, and of his Chief Engineer, Mr. Daniel Ulrich, and the thanks of all in any way interested in the work are due to these gentlemen for their care and solicitude that it should be carried out in the best manner possible. N. L. BRITTON. COOPERATIVE FORESTRY. The division of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture is prepared so far as its very limited appropriation will permit to render practical assistance to farmers and others by cooperating with them to establish forest plantations, woodlots, shelterbelts and windbreaks. A section of the division has been recently organized and placed in charge of an expert tree planter, assisted by a number of collaborators and assistants residing in the different states, who are thoroughly familiar with the local conditions. This section will devote itself entirely to investigations in tree planting, and to the assistance of those who may avail themselves of the cooperative plan outlined in circular No. 22. Applications for such assistance will be considered in the order of their receipt, but the Division reserves the right to give preference to those likely to furnish the most useful object lessons. After an application has been made and accepted, the Superintendent of Tree Planting, or one of his collaborators or assistants, will visit the land of the applicant, and, after adequate study of the ground will make a working plan suited to its particular conditions. The purpose of this plan is to give help in the selection of trees, information in regard to planting and instruction in handling forest trees after they are planted. This plan is undoubtedly one of the most useful and valuable ever undertaken by the Division of Forestry. The growing of forest trees cannot be accomplished successfully without the possession of some knowledge of their habits, and their suitability to the place where they are to be grown. The grower must know what to plant, how to plant it, and how to care for it afterward, and the Division undertakes to supply this information. Persons wishing to avail themselves of the cooperation of the Division should apply early in November of each year, and this cooperation is given free on areas of five acres and less. Under the provisions of an offer made in October, 1898, the Division is cooperating in the management of 400,000 acres of private woodlands. ETIOLATED PLANTS AS FOOD. The possibilties of another " etiolated " plant forced in darkness is indicated by Professor Card in a bulletin from the R. I. Experiment Station ( Bulletin 55, June, 1899). Rhubarb, like nearly all hardy herbaceous plants, may be forced in a darkened greenhouse or cellar in midwinter if taken from the soil in December. The product obtained in this manner is described as a superior article of food to that grown in daylight. When the stems of a plant are to be used as food it is certainly reasonable that some method of culture should be adopted which would retard the development of the mechanical tissue, and this is secured by growth in darkness. An increased proportion of that forced in winter will probably be cultivated in this manner. FIG. I. Showing large leaf blades of rhubarb fortned in light, and small ones in darkness. From block loaned by R. I. Experiment Station. The botanical interest in Professor Card's experiments centers in the development of the leaves in darkness, which the author describes as being very small and of a bright cherry or oxblood color. Furthermore, this color is brighter and deeper in specimens growing under the lower temperatures of the forcing house, a fact in accordance with the recent conclusions of Overton on the relations of temperature and red colors. ( See p. II.) MYCORHIZAS OF ORCHIDS. The roots and underground organs of more than sev. en hundred species of orchids have been examined, and all of this number are found to have formed unions with fungi in such a manner as to form mycorhizas. A mycorhiza consists of the structure resulting from the attachment of the fungus to the roots or absorbing organs of a higher plant in such manner that the association results in benefit to both. The tube- like threads of the fungus generally gain entrance to the roots while they are young, and grow forward, as the root extends in length, in the tissues just underneath the epidermis. Branches of the tubes or hyphae are sent out through the root- hairs into the soil, and the: two plants work in partnership to accomplish nutrition. The' fungus takes up the products of decaying leaves and organic matter in the soil, carries them into the root, yielding the greater • portion to the higher plant, which may actually get all of its food from its minute associate. Some of this food, however, is built up into starch and sugar, which is given back to the fungus. The higher plant thus take the crude material given it by the fungus and makes it into substances which the fungus is unable to construct, but which form a very valuable food for it. In addition to this advantage to the fungus the root offers it a habitat in which it is free from many dangers it would encounter in the soil. The nicety of attention necessary to the successful culture of most orchids is doubtless due to the fact that not only must the proper conditions of water and temperature be offered the higher plant, but its unseen associate must be provided with exactly the proper soil and food. The fungi which inhabit the hanging roots of the epiphytic orchids bear the same relation to them, though many inexperience writers have described them as parasites. By the cooperation of the fungus the orchid is relieved from the fierce struggle to win its food from the soil necessary to unaided species, and the great variations and marked characteristics of the leaves and flowers of this group may be due in part to its method of nutrition. Although not generally known, the variations of the underground organs are almost as great as those of the aerial parts. Thus the coralroots ( Corallorhisas) have lost their roots entirely, and the underground coralloid formations which gives them their name, are really short branches serving the purpose of roots and inhabited by a fungus. Some of the FIG. 2. a, old corm of Aplectrum from which have sprung three young plants by coralloid offsets, b, normal specimen. Reproduced by permission from The Annals of Botany, March, i8gg. 10 near relatives of the coralroots show a tendency to construct similar underground branches, especially Aplectrum and Calypso. If one digs up a specimens of Aplectrum he will find an old corm of last year's growth connected by an offset an inch long with a young corm which sends up a leaf in the autumn. The fungus which lives in the roots of the old corm travels through this offset and down into the new roots formed at its tip when it begins to enlarge to make the young corm. Now, if the growth of the offset should be disturbed, or if it should not be properly nourished from the old corm, it develops air of the latent buds along its sides into coralloid branches, with hairs through which the Fungus sends tubes out into the soil and brings in a supply of material. The leaves which spring from offsets developed in this manner are much narrower than the ordinary forms. The clumps of Aplectrum which grow alongside a decaying log, or which have found footing in the remains of one are very apt to make these coralloid formations, or they may be produced at the will of the experimenter, if old corms are separated from the plant and made to germinate the latent buds. About two hundred specimens of this plant are now growing in a single plantation in the New York Botanical Garden, and a number have the narrow leaves indicative of the curious underground stems or branches of the offsets. The appearance of the normal plant, and a clump with the coralloid formations is shown in figure 2. COLORS. The subject of colors is a most prolific one and is unfortunate in the character of some of the literary production which it incites. A paper recently distributed by F. T. Mott, F. R. G. S., of Leicester, England, " On the Origin of Organic Color," which seems to be a reprint of a paper printed in Science in 1893, and of another read before the British Association in the same year, is the most noticeable of the recent vintage. The tenor of this paper maybe gained from the following quotations : " An animal 11 which spends its life in proximity to the brown bark of trees will be under the influence of the molecular rhythm of such bark and may have its own molecular rhythm gradually modified by sympathetic action, or it may entirely resist such modification according to its fundamental molecular structure." There are such possibilities in this idea, in the mind of the author, that he supposes " that the beauty of the summer as we know it now, though it has never been paralleled in the past, will be as nothing in the blaze of brilliance which shall mark the summers of the future." Speculations of this character are harmless and also useless. Mr. E. Williams Hervey has recently issued a pamphlet of over a hundred pages in which he records a large number of original observations on color. As the author in this case says in his preface, " These ( colors) offer a somewhat novel subject for inquiry. There is very little literature on the subject, and a portion of that is open to grave criticism," one is quite prepared to find a repetition of well worn observations. Some interesting facts in the occurrence of color markings are recorded, however. The author very correctly ascribes a minor influence to the agency of animals in the development of pigmented tissues, though the logic by which this conclusion is reached rests upon facts not conceded by botanists. The recent researches of Overton on the red cell- sap of plants shows that its occurrence is conditioned upon the presence of sugar, and that the depth of the tints depends upon the concentration of the sugar. Low night temperatures induce the development of such colors, which the author believes accounts for the reddish coloration of alpine species, and to the same cause1 are due the yellowish- red tints of evergreen leaves during the winter. If two plants of the ordinary bladderwort ( Utricularia) are grown in separate dishes of water containing different proportions of sugar, the relation of this substance to color production can be verified. A paper by Miss Grace Smith was read before the Society of Plant Morphology and Physiology at New Haven, December 27, 12 1899, < n which she records her observations on red color in New England plants. 250 of 750 species exhibited red color in some form. The color was found in stems in 74 per cent, of the species, and it is most prevalent on upper surfaces. Miss Smith's record of the most abundant occurrence of the color on specimens in dry sunny places is quite at variance with the conclusions of Overton, and leaves much to be yet explained. RECENT ACCESSIONS. Mr. William E. Dodge of the Board of Managers has presented the institution with twenty- five exhibition microscopes to be used as part of the permanent display in the museum. These instruments are being constructed after a model recently designed by members of the staff. The New York Academy of Medicine is the donor of the greater part of the botanical books of the library of the late Dr. Hosack, amounting to over two hundred volumes, nearly all of which are publications of the last century or earlier, and are rare and difficult to obtain. The addition of these books to the library of the Garden is an interesting reminder of the efforts of Dr. Hosack to establish a botanical garden in New York City early in the century. Mr. John J. Crooke of Staten Island has given a very valuable collection of herbarium and museum specimens accumulated by him some thirty or forty years ago. These specimens are now being mounted, labelled, and incorporated in the general collection. They include a set of Elihu Hall's Plantae Texanae, the most noteworthy collection of plants from that district ever made, a set of the specimens obtained by the Wilkes' Expedition to the Pacific Ocean, and numerous others now impossible to secure except in some such manner. Mr. Crooke, it will be remembered, has been a most generous patron of the botanical department of Columbia University; having presented that institution with the invaluable herbarium of Professor Frederic Meisner of Basel, Switzerland, and the col- 13 lection made by Dr. Chapman in the southern Atlantic States, upon which his " Flora of the Southern States " is based. The deposit of the Columbia herbarium at the Garden thus brings, all of the botanical collections in which Mr. Crooke has been interested together in one building, and emphasizes the fact that he has been one of the most liberal scientific benefactors of botany in New York. His gifts of geological, conchological, and other zoological specimens to the Museum of Natural History have also-greatly enriched the collections of that institution. Mr. B. G. Amend has recently presented a collection of more than two hundred original drawings and unpublished quarto lithograph plates made by the late Professor August Koehler, which were designed to illustrate a work on the flora of North America. Professor Koehler published a " Practical Botany" in 1876, which was widely used in botanical instruction at that period. Mr. Harlan P. Kelsey has presented a valuable and interesting collection of hardy perennials, shrubs and trees, mainly from the Southern Alleghanies, including some seventy species not hitherto represented in the plantations. These have been distributed in the herbaceous grounds, fruticetum and nurseries. Mr. Nathaniel Thayer, of South Lancaster, Mass., has presented a very large Cycas rcvohita and two immense century plants ; these, together with a considerable number of other tender plants contributed by several other friends have been stored in the basement of the museum building awaiting the completion of the western end of the range of greenhouses, which will not be delayed much longer. BEQUEST OF JUDGE DALY. The following is extracted from the will of Ex- Chief Justice Charles P. Daly, probated October 23, 1899. Article 8, Section 3. I give, devise and bequeath to my executor, Henry R. Hoyt, the sum of twenty thousand dollars, in trust, nevertheless, to invest and reinvest the same, and to pay over the net annual interest, dividends or income thereof to my 14 wife's sister, Rosalie Staples, semi- annually for and during the term of her natural life, and upon her death to pay over the said principal sum to the New York Botanical Garden. Section 5. All the balance of the said rest, residue and remainder of my estate which shall remain after the payment of the foregoing devises, legacies and bequests in this eighth article of my will specified, I give, devise and bequeath as follows : One-twelfth part thereof to the New York Botanical Garden as and for a memorial of my wife's late grandfather, David Lydig, the amount of said bequest to be used and expended by said corporation in such manner and for such purposes as the Board of Managers thereof rtlay deem for the best interests of the Botanical Garden. NEWS, NOTES AND COMMENTS. The Torrey Botanical Club has appointed a committee to prepare a programme in commemoration of the life and work of Dr. John Torrey, to be presented before Section G, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at its meeting in New York, in the last week of June, 1900. The agencies which most affect and prevent the proper development of trees in large cities are electricity, gas and steam. The death of many specimens can be referred to illuminating gas. If a leak occurs into a pipe, the gas escapes very readily into the soil especially if it is porous, and when it comes into contact with the roots they are asphyxiated, the result being qnickly manifest in the appearance of the tree. The symptoms of gas poisoning are most generally a sudden falling of the leaves, a deadened appearance of the bark due to the collapse of the cambium or living layer. In mild instances of poisoning the effect shows only upon one side of the tree, but in general the tree seldom escapes death. Many trees on the grounds of city residences are killed by gas to the perplexity of the owner, since this may occur with specimens fifty or even a hundred feet away from the nearest gas main.— Adapted from the eleventh annual report of the Botanist of the Hatch Experiment Station. 15 Mr. J. B. S. Norton has published a list of the works treating of the effects of wind upon plants in the Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, for 1898, which includes about 60 titles. He classes the effects of winds upon plants under the following heads: A. Indirect, such as 1. Carrying moisture in the form of clouds which supply-plants with water. 2. Aiding transpiration by change of moist for dry air. The effects of hot winds might be placed here. B. Direct effects. 1. Injuries, such as breaking and uprooting. 2. Adaptations for using the wind. a. In effecting pollination. b. In the dissemination of fruits and seeds. Adaptations protective. 3. Adaptative protection against the wind. a. In wood structure. b. In leaf structure. c. In habit. d. In location. This work was done in connection with some studies of the effects of the tornado of 1896 on the trees of the Missouri Botanical Garden and St. Louis. The Botanical Garden at Buitenzorg, Java, has recently established an additional publication in the form of a bulletin, making the sixth series issued from that institution. The " Annals," the " Bulletin " and the " Icones Bogorienses " are devoted chiefly to technical papers, while the other three are intended for the administration and constituency of the garden. According to the description by Dr. Treub, the Director, the garden is organized in ten divisions : herbarium and museum, laboratories for botany, experimental garden and laboratory for agricultural chemistry, laboratory for pharmacology, botanic garden, administration library and photographic department, 16 forestry, laboratory for the study of tobacco, laboratory for the study of coffee, and laboratory for agricultural zoology. The garden proper has an area of 401 acres, and the mountain garden 700 acres. The library contains 9230 volumes and 2860 pamphlets. The library of the Royal Society of Natural Science with 10,800 volumes is also accessible to workers in the garden. The herbarium amounts to more than a hundred thousand specimens, and the museum contains a large amount of material of scientific and economic interest. Special laboratories are provided for the use of visiting botanists and so far 75 investigators have used the facilities provided, of which but one was from the United States. It is of interest to note that a division of meteorology is contemplated as a necessary adjunct to the work in plant physiology. Mr. R. S. Williams, who spent the seasons of 1898 and 1899 in the Yukon Territory is now serving as a special museum aid at the Garden. He made extensive collections of preserved plants of the region, which are now being studied by him and members of the staff. This plant collection is believed to be the first one made in the Klondike region and it contains many species of great scientific interest; an account of it together with an; enumeration of the species is being prepared by the Director- in-chief. After a complete set of the material has been filed in the: herbarium, the duplicates will be distributed to correspondents oft the Garden. Mr. A. A. Heller has returned to Puerto Rico to extend his collections made in 1899. He will keep the field during January and February, with headquarters at Mayaguez in the western part of the island. Four botanical organizations will convene in New York during the last week in June, 1900 : the Botanical Society of America, the Botanical Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Botanical Club of the same Association, and the Society for Plant Physiology and Morphology. The last named will meet for business purposes only. flDeinbera of tbe Corporation. DR. TIMOTHY F. ALLEN, PROF. N. L. BRITTON, FREDERIC BRONSON, HON. ADDISON BROWN, WM. L. BROWN, ANDREW CARNEGIE, PROF. CHAS. F. CHANDLER, WM. G. CHOATE, HON. EDWARD COOPER, CHAS. F. Cox, JOHN J. CROOKE, W. BAYARD CUTTING, WM. E. DODGE, DR. WM. H. DRAPER, PROF. SAM'L W. FAIRCHILD, GEN. LOUIS FITZGERALD, RICHARD W. GILDER, HON. THOMAS F. GILROY, PARKE GODWIN, HON. HUGH J. GRANT, HENRY P. HOYT, ADRIAN ISELIN, J R ., MORRIS K. JESUP, JOHN I. KANE, EUGENE KELLY, JR., PROF. JAMES F. KEMP, WM. JOHN S. KENNEDY, J. J. LITTLE, HON. SETH LOW, DAVID LYDIG, EDGAR L. MARSTON, D. O. MILLS, J. PIERPONT MORGAN, THEO. W. MYERS, GEO. M. OLCOTT, PROF. HENRY F. OSEORN, OSWALD OTTENDORFER, JAMES R. PITCHER, RT. REV. HENRY C. POTTER, PERCY R. PYNE, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, WM. ROCKEFELLER, PROF. H. H. RUSBY, WM. C. SCHERMERHORN, JAMES A. SCRYMSER, HENRY A. SIEBRECHT, SAMUEL SLOAN, WM. D. SLOANE, ' NELSON SMITH, DK. W. GILMAN THOMPSON, SAMUEL THORNE, PROF. L. M. UNDERWOOD, H. S. WOOD. P X J B L I C ^ T T O J V S OF The New York Botanical Garden Journal of the New York Botanical Garden, monthly, illustrated, containing notes, news and non- technical articles of general interest. Free to all members of the Garden. To others, io cents a copy; $ 1.00 a year. [ Not offered in exchange.] Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden, containing the reports of the Director- in- Chief and other official documents, and technical articles embodying the results of investigations carried out in the Garden. Nos. 1- 4, 294 pp., 3 maps, and 8 plates, 1S96- 99. Free to all members of the Garden. To others, 25 cents a copy. Memoirs of the N ew York Botanical Garden, Vol. I. An Annotated Catalogue of the Flora of Montana and the Yellowstone Park, by Dr. Per Axel Rydberg, assistant curator of the museums. An arrangement and critical discussion of the Pteridophytes and Phanerogams of the region with notes from the author's field book and including descriptions of over a hundred new species. Price to members of the Garden, $ 1.00. To others, $ 2.00. [ Not offered in exchange.] Contributions from the New York Botanical Garden. A series of technical papers written by students or members of the staff, and reprinted from journals other than the above. No. 1. Symbiosis and Saprophytism, by Dr. D. T. MacDougal. Price, 25 cents. No. 2. New Species from western United States, by Dr. Per Axel Rydberg. Price, 25 cents. No. 3. The dichotomous Panicums: some new Species, by Geo. V. Nash, Price, 25 cents. No. 4. Delphinium Carolinianum and related Species, by Dr. Per Axel Rydberg, Price, 25 cents. All subscriptions and remittances should be sent to THE ACCOUNTANT NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN BRONX PARK, N E W YORK cm |
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