PLANT SCIENCE BULLETIN

A Publication of the Botanical Society of America, Inc.

June 1966   Volume Twelve   Number Two

The United States National Herbarium

Conrad V. Morton and William L. Stern
Smithsonian Institution

The United States National Herbarium dates back almost to the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution in 1846. Collections of plants resulting from various early government expeditions were first deposited in the National Institute, named originally in 1840 as the National Institution for the Promotion of Science. Later these plants were turned over to the newly founded Smithsonian. Of particular interest among these were the large collections of the U.S. South Pacific Exploring Expedition, under the command of Lt. Charles Wilkes, U.S.N., which formed the real basis for a national herbarium. The earliest expeditions sponsored in part by the Smithsonian Institution itself included the explorations of Charles Wright in Texas and New Mexico in 1848. The early Smithsonian plant collections, together with those gathered during government-sponsored expeditions to the new West, were turned over to Asa Gray, a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution and Professor of Botany at Harvard University, and John Torrey, Professor of Botany at Columbia College. The assembled botanical collections were in the actual custody of Torrey and were kept at Columbia College in New York City.

The Smithsonian assisted with all the U.S. Government exploring expeditions, among others those of Emory, Whipple, King, Gunnison, Pole, Stevens, Hayden, and Powell. Especially noteworthy were the botanical collections of Charles Wright undertaken in conjunction with the U.S. North Pacific Exploring Expedition under the command of Ringgold and Rodgers which provided plant specimens from the Bering Straits, Japan, China, Hong Kong, and elsewhere.' A great many botanical papers resulting from these expeditions were published in the reports of the U.S. Railroad Surveys. The Smithsonian Institution itself published several important monographs dealing with plants from these explorations, namely, Asa Gray's "Plantae Wrightianae Texano-neo-mexicanae" (1853-1854), John Torrey's "Plantae Fremontianae" (1854), and especially Professor William Henry Harvey's "Nereis Boreali-Americana," the first general account of our marine algae and still a fundamental reference work.

In 1868, only a few years before his death, Torrey decided that he could no longer retain custody of the herbarium. In the absence of suitable quarters and staff in the Smithsonian building in Washington, D.C., the first Secretary, Joseph Henry, made arrangements that the Smithsonian collections be deposited with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which had been amassing a working collection of herbarium specimens for the use of its personnel.

Some years later the noted paleobotanist Lester F. Ward began gathering another collection of plants in the U.S. National Museum'' for use in comparing living plants with fossil materials for the purpose of identification of the latter and also because of his interest in the local Washington area flora. It is of interest to note in this connection that in 1881 the Smithsonian Institution published Ward's "Guide to the flora of Washington and vicinity." Ward was given the title of Honorary Curator of Recent Plants at the Smithsonian Institution and later was named Honorary Associate in Paleobotany, a position he held until his death in 1913.

Spencer F. Baird, the second Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was concerned about maintaining two herbaria in Washington. Because of this and his personal desire to establish a great museum in the Capital, he made arrangements for returning to the Smithsonian the plant collections that had been turned over to the Department of Agriculture by Secretary Henry and also to bring along the assembled Agriculture specimens. Thus was formed the U.S. National Herbarium,; a joint project of the U.S. National Museum, under the Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Frederick Vernon Coville, Chief Botanist of the Department of Agriculture, was appointed Honorary Curator of the National Herbarium, March 28, 1893. He retained this post

¹Some of these explorations are described in S. F. Baird. 1855. Report on American explorations in the years 1853 and 1854. Appendix to the [Ninth Annual) Report of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Beverley Tucker, Senate Printer. Washington, D.C.

²The U.S. National Museum is that branch of the Smithsonian Institution comprising the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of History and Technology.

³The U.S. National Herbarium is a quasi-official organization previously administered by the Division of Plants and now by the Department of Botany of the Smithsonian Institution. It was established in 1894 as the name for the joint plant collections of the U.S. National Museum and the Department of Agriculture.

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until his death in 1937. In 1894, Joseph Nelson Rose was made Assistant Curator of the National Herbarium and thus became the first, full-time, professional botanist associated with the Smithsonian Institution. The next year, C. L. Pollard was appointed Assistant Curator and served in this capacity until 1903. At the time of the union which finally took place July 1, 1896, the National Her-barium contained an estimated 250,000 specimens.

In 1899 William Ralph Maxon was appointed Aid in the Division of Plants; he subsequently became its first Curator following Coville's death in 1937. Maxon was chiefly responsible for building up the National Herbarium to its present position among the herbaria of the world. Several other botanists were associated with the Museum in its early years, notably Joseph H. Painter, a promising young botanist appointed as Aid in 1904. .Painter drowned while swimming in the Potomac River at Plummer's Island in 1908. Others, who subsequently made their names elsewhere, were LeRoy Abrams (Assist-ant Curator, 1905-1906), E. O. Wooton (Assistant Curator, 1910), and Homer D. House (Assistant Curator, 1905). Also to be mentioned is the talented botanical artist F. A. Walpole who was with the herbarium for a number of years and died in 1904; many of Walpole's beautiful paintings and drawings are still maintained by the Museum. Associated with the herbarium was the controversial figure of E. S. Steele, highly regarded as the botanical editor of the Contributions from the U.S. National Herbarium, but debatable as an authority on the taxonomy of Rubus, Liatris, and other "difficult" groups of plants.

In the early part of the century two prominent taxonomists were associated with the herbarium. The distinguished authority on North American plants, Edward L. Greene, resigned his position as Professor of Botany at Catholic University and became an Honorary Associate in Botany at the Smithsonian in 1904. At this time he was working on his monumental "The Landmarks of Botanical History," the first volume of which was published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1909; since Greene's death in 1915 the manuscript of the second volume has lain unpublished, but consideration is now being given to publishing it. Captain John Donnell Smith was appointed an Honorary Associate in 1905, a position that he retained until his death in 1928. He was an authority on the flora of Central America and gave his extensive her-barium and library, which contained a fine collection of books on classical botany, to the Institution during his lifetime.

 

Plant Science Bulletin

Adolph Hecht, Editor

Department of Botany, Washington State University

Pullman, Washington 99163

Editorial Board

Harlan P. Banks, Cornell University

Norman H. Boke, University of Oklahoma

Sydney S. Greenfield, Rutgers University

William L. Stern. Smithsonian Institution

Erich Steiner, University of Michigan

June 1966   Volume Twelve   Number Two

Changes of Address: Notify the Treasurer of the Botanical Society

of America, Inc., Dr. Harlan P. Banks, Department of Botany,

Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Subscriptions for libraries and persons not members of the Bo-

tanical Society of America are obtainable at the rate of $2.00 a

year.   Send orders with checks payable to "Botanical Society of

America, Inc." to the Treasurer.

Material submitted for publication should be typewritten, double-

spaced, and sent in duplicate to the Editor.   Copy should follow

the style of recent issues of the Bulletin.

A close cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture has continued from the beginning. Several botanists did curatorial work on the collections, among them Orator Fuller Cook (Honorary Assistant Curator of Cryptogamic Collections, 1898-1948), Walter T. Swingle (Honorary Custodian of Algae, 1898-1951), G. T. Moore (Honorary Custodian of Lower Algae, 1902-1904), David G. Fairchild (Honorary Custodian of Lower Fungi, 1898-1953), and Bernhard E. Fernow (Honorary Custodian of the Section of Forestry, which • was subsequently transferred from the Division of Plants). Many prominent botanists of Agriculture spent most of their time in the herbarium, among them William Edwin Safford (specialist on Annonaceae and on useful plants in general), Ivar Tidestrom (authority on the flora of Utah and Nevada), Thomas Kearney (authority on the flora of Arizona and on cotton and other economic plants), and Sydney F. Blake (the world authority on the Compositae).

Paul Carpenter Standley was appointed Assistant Curator in 1909 and remained in Washington until 1928. Standley was the most prolific botanist ever associated with the National Herbarium. He was also an energetic curator, and the growth of the herbarium and development of early policies were largely influenced by Standley and Maxon. At the time of Standley's departure to accept another post in 1928 the herbarium numbered about 1,000,000 specimens. Several large private herbaria had been received, notably those of John Donnell Smith, Charles Mohr, Otto Buchtien, S. Venturi, and the Biltmore Herbarium. Sheers in these herbaria were mostly identified by distinctive embossed stamps. Another notable accession was the Willey Herbarium of lichens.

Following the retirement of Maxon in 1946, Ellsworth P. Killip was made Curator. Shortly thereafter, on the recommendation of a committee of distinguished botanists, the former Division of Plants of the Department of Biology in the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History became the Department of Botany with four divisions: Phanerogams, Grasses, Ferns, and Cryptogams. The formerly independent Section of Diatoms, established in 1912 with Albert Mann as Honorary Custodian, was united with the Division of Cryptogams, bringing along with it Mann's magnificent diatom collection. Following the retirement of Killip in 1950, Jason R. Swallen was appointed Head Curator of the department.

Little attention had been paid to fungi in the early years, but in 1928 Curtis G. Lloyd donated his extensive mycological collections. In order to make them available

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to working mycologists, they were transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and John A. Stevenson was appointed Honorary Curator. Later all the general fungus collections of the Smithsonian were lent to Agri-culture to form the National Fungus Collections,4 headed now by Chester R. Benjamin. The John A. Stevenson Mycological Library, one of the most complete specialized collections in the United States, is kept with the National Fungus Collections but is owned by the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1960 the wood collections of the Division of Agriculture and Wood Products of the Museum of History and Technology were transferred to the Department of Botany. These collections formed the basis for a Division of Woods, the name of which was changed to Division of Plant Anatomy in 1963. The division maintains the Archie F. Wilson Memorial Collection of Woods and the Harley H. Bartlett wood collections from Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico, British Honduras, and Guatemala.

In 1965 an active program of research in the algae was initiated, and to that end the marine herbarium of the Beaudette Foundation was immediately secured.

Presently William L. Stern is Chairman of the Department of Botany, which has grown from a staff of five in 1946 to the present staff of 16 professional botanists. There are also resident five appointed Research Associates who carry on their botanical activities in quarters provided by the department. They are considered part of the professional staff, although they are not paid by the Institution nor do they have regular curatorial assignments. Several Honorary Curators, connected with the National Fungus Collections, are responsible for maintaining liaison between this organization and the Smithsonian Department of Botany and for caring for the department's fungus holdings.

As presently constituted, the Department of Botany is one of seven departments which comprise the Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution. Botany is divided into the five divisions mentioned above, four being set up along taxonomic lines, and Plant Anatomy. Each division is headed by a Curator-in-Charge and is staffed by Curators and Associate Curators. Herbarium-wide services are provided through the office of the Custodian of the Herbarium, a branch of the chairman's office. Besides engaging in his own chosen research and publication, each member of the curatorial staff is expected to care for a part of the collections, carry out public service, cooperate with the botanical community, pursue a program of exploration for plants in the field, develop a museum exhibits program, and serve on intramural committees and advisory groups.

According to latest figures plant specimens in the Department of Botany number well over 3,000,000 divided among the divisions about as follows: Phanerogams, 2,000,000; Ferns, 240,000; Grasses, 400,000; Cryptogams, 500,000; and Plant Anatomy, 45,000. The segregated Type Herbarium contains about 60,000 specimens: 42,000 phanerogams, 10,000 grasses, 3,500 ferns, and 4,500 cryp-

' See Chester R. Benjamin. 1963. The National Fungus Collections. Plant Science Bulletin 9: 1-6. togams. These collections are housed in well over 2,000 storage cases.

From its beginnings the U.S. Department of Agriculture has had a special interest in grasses and other forage plants. Under the leadership of the eminent agrostologist George Vasey, a large grass collection was assembled which was increased by his successors Frederick Lamson-Scribner and Albert S. Hitchcock. In recognition of the size and importance of the grass collections which ultimately came to the Smithsonian, the Division of Plants formally set up a Section of Grasses on October 10, 1912, with Professor Hitchcock as Custodian. After the death of Hitchcock in 1935 Dr. Agnes Chase was appointed Honorary Custodian, a position she held actively until very near her death in 1963. During the reorganization of the Division of Plants in 1946 a separate Division of Grasses was established with Jason R. Swallen as Curator. The grass collections are the finest in the United States and rank with the best in the world. They are supplemented by the Hitchcock-Chase Agrostological Library, a magnificent collection of books and papers on grasses built up through the personal efforts and expenditures of Albert S. Hitchcock and Agnes Chase through many years. This library is maintained as a unit and has a small bequest for its support.

Many of the results of research undertaken in connection with the specimens in the U.S. National Herbarium have been printed in the Contributions from the U.S. National Herbarium, which were at first published by the Department of Agriculture beginning on July 16, 1890. Agriculture continued to publish the Contributions through the seventh volume, until July 1, 1902, when the U.S. National Museum assumed the responsibility for publication pursuant to an act of Congress. Throughout the years many important papers have been published in the Contributions, among them the "Botany of Western Texas," by John M. Coulter; "Plant Life of Alabama," by Charles Mohr; "Flora of Washington," by C. V. Piper; "Flora of New Mexico," by E. O. Wooten and P. C. Stand-ley; "Trees and Shrubs of Mexico," by P. C. Standley (recently reprinted); "Flora of the District of Columbia and Vicinity," by A. S. Hitchcock and P. C. Standley; "Flora of Utah and Nevada," by I. Tidestrom; and "Flora of the Panama Canal Zone," by P. C. Standley. In addition to these floristic treatments, the Contributions have included monographs in all major plant groups and papers on subjects other than traditional taxonomy, as for in-stance, ethnobotany, genetics, ecology, plant anatomy, linguistics, plant geography, and bibliography. Among the notable contributors, in addition to those already mentioned, are George Vasey, Alexander W. Evans, Edwin B. Bartram, Joseph N. Rose, Per A. Rydberg, Albert S. Hitchcock, Frederick V. Coville, Orator F. Cook, William R. Maxon, Edward L. Greene, Henri Pittier, Nathaniel L. Britton, Frederick Lamson-Scribner, Elmer D. Merrill, Agnes Chase, William E. Safford, John Donnell Smith, Sydney F. Blake, Wilson Popenoe, William Trelease, Albert C. Smith, and William R. Taylor. The Contributions have 32 completed volumes and six additional under way.

Space is regularly provided in the U.S. National Her-

barium for six to eight investigators attached to the New Crops Research Branch, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Facilities are also made available, on a more or less regular basis, for botanists from the Forest Service, the National Arboretum, and the National Park Service who come to consult our specimens, use our library, and confer with our staff. Throughout the existence of the U.S. National Herbarium facilities have been afforded in Washington to visiting botanists for purposes of study and comparison. The guest register indicates that over 4,000 visits were made to the U.S. National Herbarium by botanists since 1930. Of these, almost 800 were from foreign nations, some botanists coming to the United States for the express purpose of studying our collections. Specimens are also made avail-able to the botanical community on loan, and since 1949 over 350,000 specimens have been so treated. Well over a quarter-million herbarium specimens have been sent from the U.S. National Herbarium on exchange to institutions throughout the world since 1949.

For many years the department has supported activities leading to the preparation of an index to the species of grasses. George Vasey began this compilation some-time prior to 1900, and it has been continued over the years by Frederick Lamson-Scribner, Elmer D. Merrill, F. T. Hubbard, Cornelia D. Niles, and finally by Agnes Chase. Through the diligent work of Mrs. Chase, the compiled "Index to Grass Species" in three volumes was published by the G. K. Hall Company in 1962, one year before Mrs. Chase died.

The production of the Index Nominum Genericorum, a project of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy, has recently been transferred from Utrecht, Netherlands, to the United States. Financed by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the continuing project is housed in the Department of Botany of the Smithsonian Institution where facilities have been made available for a staff of botanical bibliographers headed by Ida K. Lang-man.

The U.S. National Herbarium was located on the third floor and in the towers of the original Smithsonian building until recently. The Division of Plant Anatomy had occupied quarters in the adjacent Arts and Industries building, the old National Museum building. In the spring of 1965, the Department of Botany and the assembled collections were moved to the new west wing of the Museum of Natural History. The fourth and fifth floors of this wing now occupied by the department comprise 50,000 square feet of air-conditioned specimen storage space surrounded by 60 rooms used for offices, laboratories, and libraries. The department maintains a well-equipped microrechnical laboratory and laboratory for the study of grass anatomy, as well as a photographic darkroom and department conference and seminar room. Paleobotanical laboratories and equipment are obtainable for use on an adjacent floor of the same wing through arrangements in effect with the Division of Paleobotany, a unit of the Department of Paleobiology. Study areas are available for visiting scientists and graduate students and botanists are encouraged to make use of the herbarium and library.

Comments on the Botanical

Literature

Betty Klepper

Department of Botany, Duke University, Durham, N. C. 27706

After having several of my colleagues remark on the recent increase in volume in the botanical literature, I decided to make the small study which I report here. My objective was to determine whether or not there have been changes, other than the mere number of papers produced, over the past quarter of a century. I chose the year 1939 from the "good old days"—after the worst of the depression had passed and before the effects of World War II had made themselves evident—and compared it to 1963 or 1964 (depending on what volumes were in the library). Thus the two dates were about 25 years apart. The American Journal of Botany, which I assumed to reflect trends in botanical research in this country, was compared to its counterparts in Germany (Berichte der Deutsche Botanische Gesellscha f t) and in France (Bulletin de la Societe Botanique de France) to determine whether trends were generalized or peculiarly American.

One complaint commonly registered is that there are too many papers by Smith et al. where "al." is a string of from three to six names or, as one man put it, "Al. is the fellow that did the work." Table 1 shows that there has indeed been an increase in the number of authors per paper and that this increase has been greater in the American journal than in those from Europe. Perhaps this increase results from the fact that there is more inter-disciplinary work now than there was a quarter of a century ago or perhaps the granting system has encouraged the co-publication of theses and dissertations since the major professor's name generally appears on work supported by his grant.

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With the accumulation of more literature to cite, I expected to find and did find an increase in the number of articles cited per paper (see Table 2). French authors did not quote very much literature on either date. The

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high proportion of floristic studies in the French journal may help to explain this remarkably low number of cited articles.

Several colleagues have suggested that, while German is still the mose useful language for botanists to know, it would be practical to learn some other language in the place of French. I surveyed the articles cited in the three journals for both dates to see which languages were actually quoted or referred to most often. In the three journals there were 2378 articles in English, 1094 in German, 429 in French, and only 24 in Italian, which was the language used most next to French. The other languages quoted or referred to were Spanish (with 19), Latin (7), various Scandinavian languages (6), Russian (5), Dutch (5) , Polish (2), and Slavic (2). Thus French has surely been until now by far the most used, and presumably also the most useful, language next to English and German. The suggestion that students in graduate school be allowed to substitute in. the modern language requirements for the doctorate a thorough knowledge of Latin has some merit in view of the fact that Romance languages rate high in general usefulness and most Romance languages can be read, or at least deciphered, by a student of Latin.

Figure 1 shows for the three journals what percentage of the total articles cited was in a given language. The most readily apparent fact is that people tend to use their native language whether they be "provincial" Americans or so-called sophisticated Europeans. The percentages for the 1960's show that English is used in the American Journal of Botany about the same percentage (70% ) of the time as the native European languages are used in their journals. Thus, while the data for 1939 show a comparatively high rate of usage of English in the American journal, the data for the 1960's show that the percentage is about normal. For all three journals there is a decrease in the percentage use of English and an in-crease in the use of both German and French in the past quarter of a century. The reason for this change is obscure.

The number of articles abstracted by Biological Abstracts in 1939 was 18,108 while in 1964 it was over 100,000. Thus there has been more than a five-fold in-crease in the annual production of biological writing in the past 25 years, and this sudden growth is certainly the most striking change of all.

NOTES FROM THE EDITOR

A Guide to Graduate Study in Botany for the United States

The American Council of Education called our attention to the need for a detailed guide to graduate study in botany, especially for prospective students from foreign countries. The Council's overall guide to graduate study names the universities offering the doctorate in the various disciplines, but necessarily provides no details concerning the faculties and programs of the departments in each of these fields. Our guide, which we anticipate will be ready later this year, is a first attempt to fill this gap for botany. Despite its shortcomings we feel that it should prove valuable not only to prospective foreign students, but equally to students from this country wishing to identify departments in which work close to their interests is being pursued. Until now they have had to rely largely upon their major professor's familiarity with work of his col-leagues at other schools, a source of knowledge that has increasingly become less reliable as more and more botany and biology departments have begun to offer the PhD.

It had been our plan to gather the information used in this guide upon a "do-it-yourself" basis, each department providing a parallel listing of data concerning its faculty, programs, and recent Ph.D. theses. Most department chairmen have cooperated very willingly, if some-times tardily, to provide the data about their departments. A few have thought that we ought to look up this information for them in the American Men of Science or similar biographical volumes, not realizing that these sources provide only a fraction of the data we asked for, and often fail to include information about newer faculty members. We have had to check these references for some facts that had been omitted by our correspondents, but unfortunately have had neither the time nor the financial backing to seek out any large measure of data not provided by the contributing departments.

Being well aware of the many harassments facing busy departmental chairmen it is understandable why many have turned in routine lists prepared originally for some other purpose rather than providing the special information that was requested by the questionnaires. To some extent we have written follow-up letters in an attempt to resolve the many doubts we came to have concerning some of the data originally submitted to us. In many cases, unfortunately, time has not permitted us the luxury of trying to correct all of these submissions. Where it has been obvious that titles submitted were of papers by the faculty rather than the titles of student theses, we have had to delete this section of the department's listing. When a second edition of this guide is prepared it can be hoped that more nearly parallel citations may be obtained.

Another source of confusion arose from the listing of departments of biology rather than those of botany or plant pathology. It was difficult in some instances to decide precisely which members were botanists. Where department chairmen failed to make these decisions for us, we exercised our own judgment and deleted the names

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of persons whose primary interests were in fields other than botany. Departments of plant pathology will be listed following the listings for the botany department at the same institution. Names of non-resident research (or ex-tension) faculty have been deleted from the listings for these departments, since in most cases these people are not involved in resident graduate instruction.

Thus, the editor has had to make any decisions concerning what to leave in, what to delete, and what to revise. He hopes that his correct decisions were as numerous as his errors, but welcomes any criticisms that may serve to improve a possible revised edition.

We plan to have the preliminary edition ready by the end of the summer. It will carry listings of approximately 62 botany departments, 13 plant pathology and miscellaneous plant science departments, and the botanical sections of 32 biology departments. Copies will be offered at S3.00 each, postpaid.

Please direct your orders to the Secretary of the Botanical Society of America, Department of Botany, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47401. Remittances should be made payable to the Botanical Society of America.

Botany in the Saturday Review

The potential role of botanists in cancer research is much greater than their current participation would suggest," writes Solomon Garb, M.D., in his article, Plant Growth as a Cancer Clue, in Saturday Review for May 7, 1966. Dr. Garb reviews many instances in which plants prevent the growth of competing plants by secreting chemical growth inhibitors. Interesting facts about these substances from Juglans nigra, Encelia farinosa, Bergenia crassi f olia, and Artemisia absinthium are presented. Few of these inhibitors have been tested on animal cells, but among those that have been investigated is protoanemonin from Anemone pulsatilla, which has been shown to inhibit actively dividing cells of many plants and animals, yet does not affect non-dividing cells. Parasorbic acid from mountain ash fruits is another substance cited by Dr. Garb that shows promise as an inhibitor of animal cells, and is more effective in lower concentrations on cells of fibroblastic origin than on epithelial cells. Because of these and several other examples he presents showing considerable promise of anticancer activity in substances of botanical origin, Dr. Garb questions the relative lack of support by government agencies for work along these directions.

Teaching botanists will do well to assign Dr. Garb's article to their students. This and some of the other articles in this same issue of Saturday Review should prove excellent supplementary reading for introductory botany and biology courses. John Lear, Science Editor of Saturday Review, is to be congratulated for assembling this excellent Tenth Anniversary Science and Humanity Supplement, which he has called, "The Fragile Breath of Life."

Visiting Scientists Program

For the past two years the Pacific Science Center Foundation of Seattle, Washington, with the support of the National Science Foundation, has sponsored visits by univer-

sity scientists to the secondary schools throughout the State of Washington. The schools are asked to choose scientists residing within 100 miles of their location. The Pacific Science Center's 1964-65 brochure lists 51 scientists who have agreed to participate in the program. Twenty of these are biologists, 2 atmospheric scientists, 1 astronomer, 9 chemists, 8 mathematicians, 2 engineers, 1 geologist, 3 psychologists and 5 physicists. The biologists include seven botanists, and these with their topics are listed below:

Arthur L. Cohen, Washington State University, The Electron Microscope—Its History and Use; The Cell beyond the Microscope; The Slime Molds—plant or animal?

Arthur A. Cridland, Washington State University, How We Study Fossil Plants.

Adolph Hecht, Washington State University, Manipulating Heredity through the Chromosomes.

Arthur R. Kruckeberg, University of Washington, The Evidence for Darwinian Natural Selection; The Origin of Species—20th Century Version; Plants, Chromosomes, and People; Responses of Vegetation to Unusual Solid Types; Field Trips in the Vicinity of the School Visited, Especially in Areas Where Local Flora Is Readily Available, or Parks and Other Sources of Ornamental Plants.

2. J. D. Meeuse, University of Washington, The Pollination of Flowers; Respiratory Metabolism in Plants; Euglenids; Straddling Two Worlds—Rumphius, Plinius Indicus.

Ronald C. Phillips, Seattle Pacific College, The Role of Eelgrass, Zostera marina L. in the Marine Environment; The Implications of a Widespread Catastrophe in the Marine Environment.

3. Gardner Shaw, Washington State University, Plant Disease and Human Welfare; How the Plant Doctor Protects Our Crops; Mushroom or Toadstool? Folklore and Biology of Mistletoes.

My colleagues and I have found that our visits have provided us with a much better understanding of the high schools, their strengths and their problems. In turn we have tried to support the high school teachers, both by (hopefully) inspiring their better students and by directing the teachers to recent developments and sources of materials adaptable to their classes. Recently, for example, I was able to provide a start of Tradescantia paludosa for a teacher who had searched in vain for this plant at the local nurseries in Spokane.

Further information about this program may be obtained by writing to the Program Director, Ronald L. Smallman, Pacific Science Center Foundation, 200 Second Avenue North, Seattle, Washington.

Policy on Book Reviews

In December, 1963, Dr. Constantine J. Alexopoulos, then President of the Botanical Society, appointed Dr. Lawrence Crockett, Dr. Sydney Greenfield, Dr. Charles Heimsch, Dr. Richard Klein, and Dr. William C. Steere (chairman) as an ad hoc committee to review all policies concerned with the Plant Science Bulletin. Included in the commit-tee's report to the Council of the Botanical Society at the

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Boulder meeting in 1964 was the following recommendation:

The Committee believes that the Bulletin is not the place for long book reviews, especially of text-books. Perhaps the space could be more constructively utilized by the publication of comprehensive lists of current botanical books, with or without brief notes or reviews. For example, botanists need an up-to-date source of in-formation concerning new paper-back books on the plant sciences.

With this last suggestion in mind I have assembled a listing of strictly botanical paperbacks published within the last five years. Regional manuals and non-college level publications have not been included, but might be considered later for separate listings. It is likely that I have missed some important titles, but will be happy to add these in later issues when they are brought to my attention. Paperbacks on biological topics including significant botanical involvement might be considered for still another listing.

Botanical Paperbacks

Baker, H. G. Plants and Civilization. Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1965. 183 pp.

Beevers, H. Respiratory Metabolism in Plants. Row-Peterson, 1961. 232 pp.

Billings, W. D. Plants and the Ecosystem. Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1964. 154 pp.

Bold, H. C. The Plant Kingdom. Prentice-Hall, 2nd Ed., 1964. 118 pp.

Cook, S. A. Reproduction, Heredity and Sexuality. Wads-worth Publishing Co., 1964. 117 pp.

Delevoryas, T. Plant Diversification. Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1966. 145 pp.

Doyle, W. T. Nonvascular Plants: Form and Function. Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1964. 147 pp.

Esser, K. and J. R. Raper, Editors. Incompatibility in Fungi. Springer-Verlag, 1965.   .124 pp.

Galston, A. W. The Life of the Green Plant. Prentice-Hall, 2nd Ed. 1964. 118 pp.

Jensen, W. A, The Plant Cell. Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1964. 136 pp.

Jensen, W. A. and L. G. Kavaljian, Editors. Plant Biology

Today. Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1963. 114 pp. Knobloch, I. W., Editor. Selected Botanical Papers. Prentice-Hall, 1963. 311 pp.

Ray, P. M. The Living Plant. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963. 127 pp.

Salisbury, F. B. and R. V. Parke. Vascular Plants: Form and Function. Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1964. 136 pp.

Steward, F. C. Plants at Work. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1964. 184 pp.

Steward, F. C. About Plants: Topics in Plant Biology. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1966. 184 pp. Corrigendum

In the last issue the address of Joseph Ewan, Vice-Chairman of the Historical Section, was listed incorrectly. He should have been listed as follows: Prof. of Biology, Tulane Univ., New Orleans, La. 70118.

Personalia

The Department of Botany at Arizona State University, Tempe, announces the following two appointments effective during the academic year 1966-67:

Dr. Jean M. Schmidt, a 1964 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and currently a U.S. Public Health Service Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, as Assistant Professor of Virology.

Dr. Jerome N. Aronson, currently a lecturer in Botany at the University of California at Berkeley, as Associate Professor of Botany.

Andrew Denny Rodgers III of Columbus, Ohio, received an honorary degree, Doctor of Letters, from The Ohio State University at its June 1966 commencement. Mr. Rodgers is the author of seven scholarly works concerned with the lives of American botanists and the history of the development of botany in the United States. In the course of his researches, he discovered and helped to pre-serve important collections of manuscript source materials which might otherwise have been lost. In recognition of his accomplishments, the Botanical Society of America awarded him one of its 50 certificates of merit at its golden jubilee celebration in 1956.

NEWS AND NOTES

Symposium: Basic Concepts, Initial College Course

The Teaching Section of the Botanical Society will sponsor a symposium at the forthcoming A.I.B.S. meetings to consider the future of botany consistent with the increased national interest in improving both the educational opportunities and the quality of education in America. Four eminent botanists, each of whom has distinguished himself as a scholar, a researcher, and a teacher, have agreed to contribute the benefits of their experience by reflecting on what accumulation of knowledge, skills, and experience they consider is necessary for students to have for advancing the frontiers of botany. They will then present concrete suggestions as to the concepts they think should be taught in the first college botany course.

After the four speakers have made their contributions, the audience will be invited to offer succinct additions to the subject. The symposium has been scheduled as follows: Teaching Section, Wednesday afternoon, August 17, 1966 Helena A. Miller, Presiding

2:00 Professor James Bonner, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena

2:20 Professor G. Ledyard Stebbins, University of California, Davis

2:40 Five-minute recess

2:45 Professor Frederick C. Steward, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

3:05 Professor Kenneth V. Thimann, University of California, Santa Cruz

3:25 Audience participation (limitation of 90 seconds per speaker)

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Corresponding Members

Two corresponding members, Professors Arne Miintzing and Cecil Terence Ingold, were elected in 1965. The By-Laws reads as follows with respect to this category of membership: "Corresponding members shall be chosen from authors of important contributions to the science of botany. The number of such members shall be limited to forty. Corresponding members will be nominated by the Council, which will receive recommendations and credentials submitted by members. Corresponding members will be elected only by The Society in open meeting. They shall receive the publications of The Society and have all other privileges of active membership."

The following statements, prepared at the time of the nomination of the corresponding members elected in 1965, summarize their contributions to their fields:

Professor Arne Miintzing, Director of the Institute of Genetics, University of Lund, Sweden, is one of the world's leading plant geneticists. His research career of 35 years has been marked by outstanding contributions to the field of genetics itself, and to the application of genetic principles to problems of evolution and plant breeding. His initial scientific contribution was the first demonstration that a Linnean species, Galeopsis tetr-ahit. could be synthesized artificially by hybridization and chromosome doubling from two other distinct species. Since this classic paper, published in 1930, he has done extensive research on polyploidy, apomixis, various chromosomal differences between species, and on the nature of the extra or "B" chromosomes which are found in many plant species. In the field of plant breeding, he has developed polyploids of rye and of the wheat-rye hybrid as new types of cereal grains. He is the author of an outstanding textbook, "Genetic Research."

Under the directorship of Professor Miintzing, the Institute of Genetics at Lund has been preeminent in the field of plant genetics. It has attracted students and scientific workers from over the world and has served as the training ground for a large number of distinguished geneticists.

Professor Miintzing has frequently visited the United States and is well known to American plant geneticists. In addition, a number of American botanists have been guests in his Institute and have profited from the stimulating atmosphere which prevails there. To plant cytologists and geneticists in the Botanical Society, Professor Miintzing would be a highly worthy and welcome addition to our roster of foreign members.

Professor Cecil Terence Ingold, Professor of Botany of Birkbeck College of the University of London, is a distinguished mycologist who has made outstanding contributions to our knowledge of fungi, particularly in elucidating methods of spore dispersal in the Ascomycetes and in the aquatic Deuteromycetes. He has held various academic positions ranging from Lecturer in Botany at the University of Reading to Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of London and has. been repeatedly honored by his colleagues with offices in various societies, having served as President of the British Mycological

Society and is serving currently as Vice President of the Linnean Society.

His contributions include numerous papers on aquatic fungi and spore dispersal mechanisms as well as three books on these subjects and a textbook on the biology of fungi.

Professor Ingold is well known and highly esteemed by American mycologists. He is currently Visiting Professor at Michigan State University and was invited by the Mycological Society of America to give the Annual Lecture for 1965. A number of American mycologists have served as postdoctoral fellows in Professor Ingold's laboratory, which has achieved worldwide fame for its research pro-grams on aquatic fungi and spore discharge mechanisms.

The Committee on Corresponding Members for 1966 includes Aaron J. Sharp, chairman, Paul J. Kramer, and C. J. Alexopoulos.

Botanical Records

A request that the Botanical Society of America Archives be deposited in the History of Science Collection at The University of Texas was presented at the Council Meeting on August 23, 1964. This request received the approval of the Council. Since receiving these Archives, our staff has microfilmed the Society records through 1949. Recently Dr. Richard C. Starr, Secretary, Botanical Society of America, has deposited in the Archives the Society's Minutes for 1950 through 1954.

In addition to these official records, the Collection has been receiving manuscripts, photographs, and publications related to the Botanical Society of America and also to outstanding U.S. botanists.

One of our current research projects is a study of the history of biology in the United States. We would like to encourage the readers of the Plant Science Bulletin to make available to us materials related to the development of botanical clubs and societies, group and individual photographs, publications and manuscripts related to our societies, and the travel journals and letters of outstanding botanists. James H. Leech, History of Science Collection. The University of Texas, 2206 Main Building, Austin, Texas 78712.

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Selenium Symposium

The Nutrition Research Institute, Oregon State University is sponsoring an International Symposium on Selenium in Biomedicine, September 6-8, 1966.

For particulars write: O. H. Muth, D.V.M., Symposium Chairman, Dryden Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331.

Notices have been received of the recent deaths of three internationally known botanists, Bohumil Ncmec of Charles University in Prague, Panchanan Maheshwari of the University of Delhi, and John E. Weaver of the University of Nebraska. Detailed accounts of the lives of these men will be published in forthcoming issues of the Bulletin.