Pickering was noted for his pioneer work in the field of astrophysics (the "new astronomy"). Great advances in photographie technique were made during the early years of his incumbency and he quickly appropriated photographic methods for his astronomical studies, founding the great Harvard photographic library. He also devised new methods of measuring the brilliancy of stars and of classifying stellar spectra. Professor Pickering was especially known for the great personal interest and assistance he was so anxious to extend to any astronomical enterprise, and in the Harvard Observatory many of our contemporary astronomers received the inspiration for their scientific labors.

Two small monographs1 on mahogany list the various species of woods that are commercially sold as mahogany and even attempt to redefine the name so as to include many other red timbers. True "mahogany" is the wood of two closely related species (Swietenia mahagoni Jacq. and S. macrophylla King) the distribution of which is limited to tropical America. Mr. Mell, author of the American volume, gives a list of sixty-one other "mahoganies" from all parts of the world, and Professor Dixon, author of the British book, describes the microscopical character of forty-five species with 138 reproductions of microphotographs. Mahogany was the chief wood used in England and Spain for shipbuilding during the eighteenth century, but with the gradual diminution of accessible supplies and the introduction of substitutes it has gradually disappeared from the trade except for use in the framework of small sailing vessels and the outer planking of yachts. The great mahogany-framed ships have been sold for enormous sums to be cut up for the manufacture of furniture. Today mahogany is a very high-priced lumber employed almost exclusively in joinery and cabinetmaking. Mr. Mell gives the selling price of the best grades in New York in 1917 as from $175 to $200 a thousand board feet.

FUSTIC Wood (Chlorophora tinctoria), the wood with which our khaki and olive drab uniforms are dyed, has experienced a period

1 H. H. Dixon, Scientific Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, vol. xv., p. 431, and C. D. Mell, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin 474, February, 1917.

of intensive cutting during the last four years. It is said that fustic has been bringing $45 and $50 a ton in New York, whereas it formerly ranged from $20 to $25 a ton. The wood is imported as logs from Mexico, Central and South America, and the West Indies, and after grinding, is used in the form of a water infusion for producing various shades of yellow, brown, olive, and green, for use particularly upon silks and woolens. It can also be compounded with other dyes for drabs, fawns, and olives, and with logwood for black. The fustic tree grows best near the coast and well drained banks of rivers, but, of course, the most accessible localities have already been cut off. One or two trees to the acre of forest is the average growth, a fact which makes getting out the fustic wood anything but profitable, and this is particularly true where it is necessary to employ land transportation through roadless country.

AN IMPORTANT series of descriptive works on the flora of the state of Florida has been issued during the last few years by Dr. John Kunkel Small, head curator of the Museums and Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. Dr. Small wrote in the JOURNAL of the American Museum for December of one of his several collecting trips to little explored sections of the Everglades and the islands off the Florida coast. The handbooks are based for the most part on material which he has collected on such expeditions and are much more complete than any survey hitherto published. They include Florida Trees, Flora of the Florida Keys, Shrubs of Florida, Flora of Miami (all 1913), Ferns of Royal Palm Hammock and Ferns of Tropical Florida (1918). The last two are extensively illustrated with drawings of the ferns and photographs of their habitats. Southern Florida constitutes a unique province in the United States, being the only point touched by a strictly tropical vegetation, so that these extensive studies by a distinguished botanist form not only an extremely valuable addition to systematic botany but also practical guides to the identification of the trees, flowers, and ferns of Florida by the interested sojourner there.

GUATEMALA, with every confidence in her natural wealth of field, forest, and pasture, has traveled far on the route to recovery

after the great earthquake catastrophes of December, 1917, and January, 1918.1 New and earthquake-proof structures are being raised of reënforced concrete and galvanized iron. Quick reconstruction was planned for the schools, and President Cabrera seized the opportunity to improve the school system and to establish a National University, whose faculty, under a superior council, will govern the curriculum of the primary and secondary schools of Guatemala. Within six months after the destruction of the city more than a million dollars had been contributed by citizens and friends and the preliminary steps toward reconstruction had already been taken.

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the selection of these works the Library has been ably assisted by Dr. W. L. Hildburgh, who has made a special study of this branch of literature.

AT a February meeting of the trustees of the American Museum, Messrs. Horace F. Hutchinson, Richard B. Kelly, and Dr. E. W. Gudger were elected life members of the institution in recognition of services rendered. Mr. Frederick Potter was elected a Fellow, Mr. William Averell Harriman, a Patron, and Mr. George F. Baker, an Associate Benefactor in recognition of their generous contributions and interest in the Museum's work.

MR. G. K. NOBLE has been appointed assistant curator of herpetology in the American Museum and Mr. Karl P. Schmidt assistant in herpetology. Mr. Barrington Moore, formerly associate curator of woods and forestry, who has been in France with the forestry branch of the Engineering Corps, has been appointed research associate in forestry.

SINCE the last issue of NATURAL HISTORY the following persons have been elected members of the American Museum:

Associate Benefactor, GEORGE F. BAKER. Patron, WILLIAM AVERELL HARRIMAN. Fellow, FREDERICK POTTER.

Honorary Fellow, HERBERT L. BRIDGMAN. Life Members, MAJOR NOEL BLEECKER FOX, DR. E. W. GUDGER, MESSRS. CHARLES B. CURTIS, GANO DUNN, HORACE F. HUTCHINSON, RICHARD B. KELLY, HUSTON WYETH, and GEO. A. ZABRISKIE.

Sustaining Members, MISS S. D. BLISS and MR. GEO. W. MANN.

Annual Members, MESDAMES FREDERICK FRELINGHUYSEN, ALBERT EDWARD HURST, WILLIAM LOEB, JR., WALTER WILLSON METCALF, WHEELER H. PECKHAM, ALICE B. TWEEDY, JOHN COLIN VAUGHAN, MISS M. R. CROSS, LIEUT. JOHN KING RECKFORD, THE RT. REV. MGR. M. J. LAVELLE, DOCTORS ROBERT ABRAHAMS, MILO HELLMAN, ALBERT R. LEDOUX, GEORGE GRANT MACCURDY, EDWARD H. SQUIBB, MESSRS. FREDERIC W. ALLEN, FRANK L. BABBOTT, ADOLPH D. BENHEIM, NATHAN I. BIJUR, CECIL BILLINGTON,

CHARLES M. BREDER, JR., FREDERICK G. CLAPP, GEORGE W. DAVISON, JOSEPH P. Day, WILLIAM J. DOWNER, JOHN W. EVERITT, FRANK S. HACKETT, FRANK MORTON JONES, G. P. KLAAS, SAMUEL HOWELL KNIGHT, JOSEPH G. LIDDLE, DANIEL M. LORD, JUDSON LOUNSBERY, S. MALLET-PREVOST, ROBERT MARSHALL, Wм. M. MCBRIDE, TOMPKINS MCILVAINE, WM. MELZER, HARVEY MURDOCK, C. W. NICHOLS, WILLIAM C. PATE, JOSEPH READ PATTERSON, LIONELLO PERERA, ARTHUR C. ROUNDS, HOWARD A. SCHOLLE, H. S. STILES, JOHN TATLOCK, ELI S. WOLBARST, and ALL HALLOWS INSTITUTE.

Associate Members, THE REVEREND WALTER F. TUNKS, THE HON. WALLACE MCCAMANT, DOCTORS J. M. ARMSTRONG, JAMES S. GILFILLAN, OSCAR OWRE, M. ROBERT WEIDNER, PROFESSOR S. C. SCHMUCKER, MESSRS. C. F. ADAMS, J. D. ARMSTRONG, J. W. CLISE, A. A. CRANE, GAYLORD C. CUMMIN, R. I. FARRINGTON, JAMES A. GREEN, H. SHUMWAY LEE, ERNEST P. LENIHAN, WILLIAM COLHOUN MOTTER, WINTHROP G. NOYES, ROGER B. SHEPARD, A. T. SIMPSON, B. W. STEPHENSON, RALPH WHELAN, PHILIP T. WHITE, and WILLIAM O. WINSTON.