Haberlandt, Sempolwski, Beck, Moeller and Oesterle, Mattirolo and Buscalioni, Hanausek, Harz, Junowicz and many others who were interested in a study of seeds of Leguminosa, particularly with reference to the light line. The writer more than a quarter of a century ago brought the literature on this subject together in his paper on the "Comparative Anatomy of Seeds of Leguminosa." Comparatively little has been done since. Intensive studies on the seeds of such families as the Leguminosa. Convolvulaceae, Cucurbitaceæ, Malvaceae, Tiliaceæ should be made because in most of these families where the light line occurs the seeds have a prolonged vitality. The subject has more or less of a practical bearing. The problem as to the nature of the light line in these seeds has not been solved. A number of present-day botanists, like Martin, Harrington and others are taking up the problem. Present-day investigations with seeds are bringing many valuable practical results in commercial seed production, as in clovers. The seed control work by the establishing standards of purity is a practical problem. The work in determining the conditions of germination, experiments with light, electricity, heat, moisture and drying and studies of seed coat are also important. The important problem of rate of maturing of seed in storage is being worked out. Seedtesting laboratories, while they are obliged to answer the immediate pressing problems on the impurities of seeds and their germination are engaged in a study of the more fundamental problems of the viability of seeds. It has been the custom for the American Seed Analysts Association to send to its co-workers seeds to test for purity and vitality. With careful treatment, there is still the greatest variation in the results. Presumably, in part at least, the methods used by seed testers is not the same and, therefore, the result can not be uniform. We should bear in mind that the viability is a matter of climate and condition of storage of the seed. The fundamental problems of every one of the great staple agricultural crops, so far as vitality of

seeds is concerned, has not been entirely solved and awaits solution by the investigator.

The writer and Miss King, during the past few years, have continued investigations on germination of seeds of forest trees and shrubs. The results exhibit surprising irregularity and uncertainty in the germination of these seeds. Boerker, of Nebraska, has followed the same line of research. The work of Sir John Lubbock on Seeds and Seedlings and various papers of Tubeuf on seeds of forest trees, although purely morphological are always valuable for reference and bear in general upon forestry problems, of economic botany.

GRASSES

Botanists have long recognized the importance of grasses in our welfare. The prosperity of the United States outside of the rich natural resources of forestry, mines and water power is concerned with the economic production of cereals, cotton and livestock. Turning to some of the older works I recall the work of Sowerby and Parnell on grasses, Metzgar, "Die Gereidarten," Stebler and Schroeter, "Körnicke, Die Gebreidearten," and Hackel, "True Grasses." In our own country early works were Flint's "Grasses of Massachusetts," Klippart, "Grasses of Tennessee," Lapham, "Grasses of Wisconsin," Vasey, "Grasses of the United States," Lamson-Scribner, various papers published by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Beal, "Grasses of North America," Hitchcock and Chase papers. These and other authors touching the economic problems of cereals, like Hunt, Carleton, Shear, Warburton and Ball have stimulated prduction but it would seem as though we have only scratched the surface so far as a study of the real problem of cereal production is concerned. It vitally concerns us as a nation to stimulate the production of cereals and forage crops because the ever-increasing population demands increased production. How can the botanists contribute more to the welfare of mankind than to study such problems as the physiology of the nutrition of the growing of wheat, maize, oats, barley and rice, or to make a study of pollination

under different climatic conditions, or the breeding of varieties of cereals resistant to diseases? We might well consider the stupendous losses from parasitic fungi of cereals. There never was a time when research on cereals and other agricultural crops was as important as it is to-day. We have, on a large scale, undertaken the removal of the barberry in the wheat-growing section of the country, because the plant pathologists are convinced that the common barberry is an important factor in rust production. And yet, I was confronted with the frequent statement by practical men in western Minnesota that there is no barberry in this particular section. I certainly saw none in the immediate area to speak of, although there was some barberry thirty miles to the south. I could not make the questioner see the importance of the barberry in connection with grain rust. Some seasons no doubt there are actually viable uredo spores on grasses. The point, I think, we should determine to convince the wheat grower on is this: are the uredo spores viable in weedy grasses, and how far the uredo spores be carried? The farmer who loses $3,000 on a quarter section of land in a single year of wheat-growing wants some solution of the problem. It is the duty of the government and the botanist to solve the problem for the country. Unless this is done by exterminating the barberry, the breeding of resistant varieties and the elimination of weedy grasses, the growing of spring hard wheats will be a thing of the past, and the farmer will be forced to turn his attention to the growing of other cereals, not subject to rust. The government and the states directly interested, can well afford to spend a half million dollars annually until the problem is solved.

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WEEDS

The subject of weeds is related to that of plant disease. It greatly interests the farmer and gardener. The farmers of the United States, at least in some sections, have endeavored to remove by legislation some of the injurious weeds, expecting, of course, that the

law would be obeyed and the weeds would soon be eliminated, but instead they are constantly increasing. As illustrations of weed legislation I need only remind you that some twentyfive years ago nearly all the northwestern states made it illegal to permit Russian thistle to grow. During these twenty-five years it has spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In Washington and Colorado where the conditions are suitable it covers the ground on little travelled roads and on the plains. In Iowa we made an effort by legislation to reduce the infested areas of quack grass,. but it has so increased that the farm values in some cases are reduced because of its presence. During the past two seasons I have received a large number of specimens of knapweed (Centaurea solstitialis) from many points in Iowa and northern Missouri, distributed largely through alfalfa seed. Buckhorn (Plantago lanceolata) is rapidly interfering with clover culture in Iowa.

We have described weeds and how to eradicate them, because this is the kind of information the farmer wants, but we have not solved a single one of the important problems in connection with weeds. Weeds have an important bearing on the crops produced. The small ragweed no doubt reduces the efficiency of the Iowa pasture during the autumn months fully one half, the weeds of corn fields frequently cut the yield one third. How these yields are reduced has not been determined. How much do we know about the mechanical interference of weed roots and the agricultural crop? So far as I know, there is absolutely no data on the subject. Water is an important factor in crop production; therefore, a study of transpiration is of importance in connection with a study of weeds. It has been pointed out by Livingston that transpiration is practically a simple function of the leaf surface and that the total transpiration is a measure of the growth of a plant, whether it is one growing in a waste place or of economic importance.

Kesselback makes it clear that weeds such as sunflower use more than three times as much water per plant as corn. while water used per

unit of dry matter was slightly more than double that of corn. In other words, a sunflower plant will consume as much water as a hill of corn. Brenchly in a recent publication states that weeds like mustards did better when they were associated with other plants, than when they were subjected to competition with their own species. Wheat is not so well able to overpower the Brassica and reduce its growth as is the case with some other weeds. Mustard would then, according to Brenchly, even in moderate amounts do considerable damage.

Possibly in the majority of places, even in the agricultural areas of the middle west, there are times in which there is not enough water to supply the needs of the plant. Water is used by a plant in large quantities and practically all of it passes off in the transpiration stream. Water being an important item, its conservation is a question which we must be concerned with. From the few citations given above we conclude that weeds do considerable damage to growing crops by consuming the moisture. Knowing that transpiration or the giving off of water by the aerial portions of a plant goes hand in hand with the leaf area, a study in which the leaf area and transpiration, are measured from time to time at specific intervals should give us much information concerning the effect of weeds upon the crop in which they are associated, both in the greenhouse and in the field.

Some preliminary work done in plant physiological laboratory at Ames by Bakke shows that the matter of transpiration by weeds is an important item in crop production. In these experiments wheat, oats and mustard were grown together and, with one exception, it was found that the total transpiration for the mixed cultures is greater than for the pure wheat and oats cultures. The present study shows that wheat transpires during the growing season more than oats.

ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

Another phase of economic botany has interested me very much, namely the relation of plants to soil. This requires the best kind

of taxonomic work if the ecological investigations are to be correctly interpreted. The national government in cooperation with various states is spending large sums of money to study soils. study soils. It is a good kind of investigation. The soils are carefully mapped on a scale as never before. The plant is an index of what the soil will produce and the aim of this work is to help the farmer. I am sure it does; and why should the botanists not cooperate with the geologist, and the soil expert make just as detailed a study of the plant life as the geologist does of the soil. In no place in the world can this problem be studied better than in the prairie states. There is scarcely anything left of the great prairie domain, except as we find it along the right-of-way of railroads. Should not a group of botanists in these prairie states study the ecological and taxonomic phases of the richest, virgin, agricultural soil in the world, as Shimek is now doing for the prairie plants of Iowa. What we need is a crop ecologist, who after a study of the problem, can tell the farmer just what crops can be grown together or what crops are best suited for his soil. Let us as botanists seek a closer cooperation with the soil expert.

I am reminded that Dr. Cowles in an address before this section called attention to the use of an ecologist to settle a legal question involving a large amount of money in regard to a meandered lake in Arkansas where a study of the problem by the ecologist disclosed the truth that the so-called lakes had been covered with trees much antedating the survey made by the government. I am told that in some surveys along the Mississippi the government instructions are to include all land to the limit of apparent line of vegetation. Who should determine the apparent line of vegetation; the surveyor, who generally knows nothing about succession, or the ecologist? It would seem to me, the ecologist.

EROSION

In a prairie state like Iowa every available area has been brought under cultivation, or the wooded areas have been turned into

pastures. Millions of dollars worth of the very best soil in this great agricultural region are annually carried down the Mississippi, finally helping to increase the area of Louisiana, or to fill up the channel of the Mississippi River. The government to prevent disastrous floods builds levees. The water, under our present system of intensive agriculture, is rushed off as rapidly as possible, the little lakes are filled up with silt from the neighboring drainage area or they are drained. Drainage no doubt does help crop production but the water table has dropped twelve feet, according to McGee, in fifty years in Iowa. Now if the water table will show a further drop it is a question of vital concern to the agriculture of Iowa. Have we any plant physiological data to show how this has influenced crop production or the growth of trees? The botanist can do a real service by making a study of the movement of water in the soil and its relation to plant growth. We know that the climatic and edaphic relations of forests are important. Zon has given us a comparative study of the problem in his paper on "Forests and Water in the Light of Scientific Investigation." Then we may also recall the work of Pearson on the "A Meteorological Study of Parks and Timbered Areas in the Western Yellow Pine Forests of Arizona and New Mexico." and the work of Hall and Maxwell, Bray and Schwartz on forests and streams flow.

In order to determine the problem of water conservation and forest conservation, I. T. Bode made an investigation in one of our park areas in Iowa. The results are interesting, as showing the close relationship between forest cover and soil moisture. The results show unmistakably, even in a small area, that the forest cover keeps greater quantities of water in the upper soil layers, that these forest areas maintain a higher water level in the soil.

The conclusion to be drawn from the work and some done by others of the Forest Service is that all hills subject to erosion should be covered with timber.

AQUATIC FARMING

I have been more or less interested in the preservation of our lakes, not only because the community and state will receive the benefit of recreation, but our lakes and streams should furnish an important source of food, and also a source of income from the fur-bearing animals. The botanist should make more study of the food for fish and game. It is said that the little muskrat in Iowa has become so depleted that it will be necessary to have a closed season. Much of this depletion is no doubt due to trapping, but may not the food supply have some bearing on the problem? Take for instance the waterlily, which has become a somewhat rare plant in Iowa. How far does this plant and the lotus minister to the food of this little rodent? Sportsmen are agreed that wild rice and wild celery are very important food plants for the wild duck. Schofield has given us a practical method of germinating wild rice, yet we know almost nothing about the maximum yield of this plant and how it might be increased. There are millions of acres of land suitable for the growing of wild rice in the United States, especially in the northern Mississippi valley. It should be used more extensively for human food than it is to-day. We know little about the uses of aquatic plants by animals. May we not breed a variety of wild rice which will cling somewhat more tenaciously to the rachis? Some plant breeder should undertake the selection of plants with this in mind.

COOPERATIVE WORK

We have never in the history of the world had as much productive research work as now, although there may be a slight curtailment since the war. Our various journals, like the Botanical Gazette, American Journal of Botany, Bulletin Torrey Botanical Ciub, Journal of Agricultural Research and various publications from experiment stations, national government and academies of science are publishing an enormous amount of good material. All state, national and private agencies are working to increase the amount

of research. Cooperation seems to be the slogan to-day and the National Research Council, created as a war measure, is functioning to stimulate research in all of these institutions of the country in a cooperative way. Botany certainly has not been neglected as evidenced by the fundamental physiological work on fertilizers and the growing of wheat, and the fundamental work in connection with the treatment of plant diseases which will be taken up by the Research Council through the Crop Protection Institute in a cooperative way. Cooperation in every line is desirable, but is it not a fact that all great discoveries are made by individuals? These individuals should have plenty of equipment and help, and each should have a free hand to work out his or her problem.

In conclusion the plea I desire to make is that the botanist should enter more vigorously into the exploitation of fields of agronomic work, ecology and taxonomic work, as it is related to horticulture and agriculture. We have allowed some splendid fields of work to slip away from us, largely because we were indifferent to the problems of agriculture. This is not true of plant pathology which has made itself felt along economic lines. It is true that some phases of plant breeding, physiology and soil relations of plants are masquerading under various forms of agriculture and horticulture. It is not my aim to belittle much that has been accomplished by horticulturists and agriculturists, but this work, when botanical, should finds its place under the head of botany. Let us look for a new era in botanical work. Then the various phases of the work will find their rightful place, not only in our teaching, but in our research as well.

IOWA STATE COLLEGE

L. H. PAMMEL

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

THE BOWDOIN MEDICAL SCHOOL THE Bowdoin Medical School, established a century ago by Maine's first legislature, will be closed as a department of Bowdoin College at the end of the current year next June, un

less by that time it receives financial support.

The following announcement has been made by President Kenneth C. M. Sills by authority of the boards of trustees and overseers.

By action of the board of trustees and overseers the Bowdoin Medical School will be finally closed as a department of Bowdoin College at the end of the current year, June, 1921, unless by that time some way shall be found to meet the requirements necessary to keep the school in Class A of American medical colleges. It has been conservatively estimated that for this purpose there must be an addition to the resources of the school of $25,000 for immediate equipment of laboratories and of at least $50,000 yearly income for more teachers and for up-keep. Unfortunately at the present time the college sees no way of procuring such funds; the need of such an endowment has often been placed before the people of Maine, but the appeals have never received an adequate response.

The college will not apply for state aid for the school. But if the citizens of Maine and the friends of medical education who believe that the maintenance of a medical school is properly a state function, desire to have the medical school reestablished as a state institution under state control and adequately supported by the state, Bowdoin College will be glad to give all assistance possible to that end, and would doubtless offer for such a purpose for temporary use, if desired, such part of the buildings and apparatus of the college as might be available.

The trustees and overseers of the college believe that there is a place for a medical school in Maine and are hopeful that the people of the state, despite the great demands on the incoming legislature, will establish such a school as a state institution, around which all the medical and public health work of the state would be centered.

THE DIRECTORSHIP OF THE BUREAU OF MINES

DR. F. G. COTTRELL, director of the United States Bureau of Mines, on December 31, handed his resignation to the President, through Secretary of the Interior Payne. He leaves the bureau to take up his duties as chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Technology of the National Research Council. Dr. Cottrell recommends as his successor H. Foster Bain, of California, whose