Washington Academy of Sciences (Vol. XII., Day, from Their Practical Side, and Accus- No
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standards of the Milton Bradley Co., as con- " Symmetric Binary Forms and Involutions," by tained in this book of Professor Mulliken's, Arthur B. Coble. it would be possible to accurately describe and "Systems of Tautochrones in a General Field identify the exact shade of the characteristic of Force," by Harry Wilfred Reddick. sample dyeings, without pasting a single "The General Transformation Theory of Differ- ential Elements," by Edward Kasner. sample in the book. And, by a proper system of classification, the chemist attempting to BOTrlNICAL NOTES identify a color, after determining its class, and dyeing a sample, would determine its ex- TWO REUENT BOOKS ON LIUHENS act place in the color table, and so avoid the WITHIN a few weeks of each other two necessity of hunting it up in the sample books notable contributions to our knowledge of the of the different color houses, or in his own lichens of this country have been issued. The sets of home-made samples. first is Albert W. C. T. Herre's "Lichens To be of real value, such a treatise should Flora of the Santa Cruz Peninsula, Cali- be written by a well-trained color chemist, fornia," published in the Proceedings of the thoroughly familiar with the dyestuffs of to- Washington Academy of Sciences (Vol. XII., day, from their practical side, and accus- No. 2) and bearing date of May 15, 1910; tomed to face, in his regular work, the many while the second is Bruce Fink's "Lichens of and varied problems in textiles,, paper-making, Minnesota " published ,in the Contributions pigments, food products and the like, which from the United States National Herbarium appear every day in a large dyeing laboratory. (Vol. 14, Part 1) and bearing date of June 1, The theoretical part of such a book could 1910. The first contains 243 pages, and the be easily obtained from the treatises we have second 256 pages, with 51 plates and 18 text- at present, including this one of Professor figures. They are both nominally local lichen Mulliken's. But the use of the color stand- floras, and judged by their titles alone might ard would give opportunity for identifying the be supposed to present a similar mode of shades with a minimum of trouble and ex- treatment. However a comparative examina- pense; and if the writer would incorporate tion of the two works shows a marked differ- some of the regular laboratory information ence between them. Thus while both accept about methods, and about the practical peculi- Zahlbruckner's general understanding of the arities of the different dyestuffs, their ease of lichens, the first author proceeds at once to dyeing, comparative fastness, special uses, the descriptive part of his book, evidently as- cost prices as compared to others of the same suming that the reader will bring to its or different classes, and a host of other minor perusal all the necessary knowledge for its matters of practical interest to users and full understanding. In Professor Fink's workers with the dyestuffs, such a book would book, on the contrary, there is an explanatory be hailed with enthusiasm by dyeing chemists introduction in which there is a discussion of from one end of the world to the other. the nature of lichens, and the views that have CHARLESE. PELLEW prevailed during the past two centuries. This Odober 6, 1910 is followed by a particular discussion of what NOIENTIFIC JOURNALN AND ARTICLEN is known of their structure and reproduction, including under the latter sexual reproduc- THE contents of the American Jouraal of tion. Here he says "the sexual processes Mathematics for October Are : have not been studied in very many of the " q-Difference Equations," by Rev. I?. H. Jack- son. fungi most closely related to the lichens, but "On the Relation between the Sum-formulas of recent discoveries seem to indicate that sex- IEilder and Ceskro," by Walter B. Ford. uality is common there and in the ascomyce- "Sur un Exemple de Fonctibn Analytique Par- tous lichens as well. In Collema, Stahl and tout Continue," pa% D. Pompeiu. others have found that the apothecium is SCIENCE [N. 8. VOL.XXXII. No. 826 preceded by an archicarp and a trichogyne covers an area more than forty times as large, which are supposed to constitute a reproduc- the number of species and subspecies is 441. tive tract. The more recent researches of We have no means for comparing the treat- Baur, Darbishire, Lindau and Wainio have ment of species and lower groups by the two proved the existence of similar tracts in authors, but from " the face of the returns " lichens of several genera, and while there is as here given it appears that the Santa. Cruz yet much need of research regarding nuclear peninsula must be more than ordinarily ricli behavior, the general presence of sexual or- in lichen forms. gans in lichens can scarcely be questioned Mr. Herre's book includes one new genus longer." and eleven new species, certainly not a great It need scarcely be said that both authors number for such an area, or such a total nurn- accept the duality of the lichen's structure as ber of forms. In Professor Fink's boolr we no longer to be questioned, which reminds the have been unable to find a single new species. writer of this review of the complete change These are encouraging sips. In some other of opinion in this regard that has taken place departments of systematic botany two such in the past thirty years. Then every Ameri- books as these could have been depended upon can and practically every English lichenol- to yield from 50 to 100 new species at the very ogist denounced the " algo-lichen hypothesis " least ! as they styled it, as the height of foolishness, In both books all specific names are de- as well as the depth of stupidity. Now one capitalized. Professor Fink's book is richly wonders whether there are any botanists who illustrated by 52 plates (mostly reproduction4 regard lichens as autonomous in the old sense. of photographs) and 18 text figures. Some of Are there any who deny that the " gonidia" these are exceptionally fine. are algs? Where are they who so vehemently denounced Schwendener and his little band of followers? Here we have a professed lichen- ITis not so very long since there were no ologist uttering such words as these : " What- plant pathologists in the United States. At ever may be the outcome of further study of least there were none Imown by that name. this question, the conception . which is There were a few botanists who began to real- still held by some botanists, that the fungus ize that plants were subject to diseases, but and the alga together compose an organism or the United States Department of Agriculture an association which constitutes the lichen had as yet given no attention to the subj~ct, need be abandoned before there can be any and this was before the inception of the ex- clear thinking regarding lichens. The lichen periment stations. At one time several botaii- is the fungus of the association." In the old ists united in a memorial to the Department days this would have been regarded as a be- of Agriculture calling attention to the de- trayal of lichenology, for logically it reduces sirability of beginning work in plant pathol- all "lichens'' to the category of fungi. In ogy, and what was their astonishment when the old days the paragraph quoted would have the secretary very promptly appointed Pro- brought down a storm of wrath upon the head fessor Scribner, until then a student of the of the author, but now no one notices this as grasses, to be the pathologist. And no one at all out of the ordinary. Ternpora mutan- was more astonished than the professor him- tur! self, but at that time secretaries of agricul- In Mr. Herre's book 307 species and sub- ture knew little or nothing as to the qnalifi- species are described from a peninsula 90 cations of a pathologist. And it is greatIy to miles long and including perhaps no more the credit of the graminologist so suddenly than 1,800 to 2,000 square miles, and ranging torn from his chosen speciality and thrust from sea level to a maximum elevation of into a new field, that he started the work in a 3,793 feet. In Professor Fink's book which creditable manner, and laid a good founda- SCIENCE tion for the excellent work that for many Hall's book also will be quite easily under- years has been done in the department. stood, especially by farmers of some botanical These thoughts are suggested by the fact education. Its classified host arrangement that there lie before the writer three notable will prove especially helpful to this class of recent books on plant diseases, by American readers, and will appeal to many students authors. They are Duggar's "Fungous Dis- also. Duggar's book is especially a mycol- eases of Plants " (Ginn), Selby's "Handbook ogist's book, since the fungous parasites are of the Diseases of Cultivated Plants in Ohio " taken up in their natural sequence. It is the (Ohio Expt. Stn.), and Stevens and 1Iall's most technical of the three books, and for that "Diseases of Economic Plants " (Macmillan). reason will appeal most strongly to the teacher The first of these treats the subject from the and student who approach the subject from standpoint of the parasite, so that in it the the mycological rather than from the agri- student of the fungi may learn what injury, cultural or horticultural side.