Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/173

Rh Orthoptera of Colorado. As might be supposed, the entomological collections and library are very good, although the latter does not contain everything I expected to see. Professor Gillette is at present assisted by Mr. S. Arthur Johnson, a relative of the well-known curator of the Boston Society of Natural History. Mr. Johnson is doing very nice work on the Hymenoptera, especially on their nesting habits and parasites. He has discovered, for example, the hitherto unknown nest of Entechnia, and has definitely proved the association of Triepeolus with Melissodes. Also with Professor Gillette is Mr. Chas. Jones, a young entomologist who will be heard of in the future. Last summer he worked in a mine at Silverton, Colorado, and spent his leisure moments making by far the largest and best collection yet made of the insects of the Arctic- Alpine zone in the Rocky Mountains. In the Department of Botany and Horticulture at the Agricultural College, Professor Paddock is properly a horticulturist; but his assistant, Mr. F. M. Rolfs, a brother of Professor Rolfs, of Florida, is doing some very interesting work on parasitic fungi. The herbarium of the college gave me much surprise and pleasure. The last time I saw it, several years ago, it was in such a condition as to be of little use for critical work. Now, the Colorado material in it has all been gone over by Dr. P. A. Rydberg, of New York, who has in press a list of the flora of Colorado, i. e., of the flowering plants thereof. The greater part of the named material has been returned to the college, and I was naturally very much interested in the determinations. Although, as I learned from Professor Paddock, the college herbarium contains only about half as many Colorado plants as they have in the New York Botanical Garden, it is by far the best and most useful public herbarium in the state. I say public herbarium because Mr. Geo. Osterhout, of New Windsor, Colo., has long studied the native flora, and is said to have a very fine collection. He has described quite a number of new Colorado plants. At the Normal School, at Greeley, they do not pretend to do much research, but Professor Beardsley has made some studies of the minute fresh-water Crustacea, and of the Protozoa, describing some new species. He has also made a collection of Colorado reptiles and amphibia, and will, I believe, publish a list of them. The library of the Normal School is very well arranged, and contains some good zoological books I did not expect to see.

In Denver, the State Historical and Natural History Society has a collection, poorly housed in the lowest floor of the capitol building. Mr. Ellsworth Bethel, of the Denver West Side High School, has long studied the fungi and flowering plants of Colorado, and has a large collection. He has discovered very many new species, especially among the fungi, but his duties leave him little time for research. The East Side High School in Denver has a herbarium, presented by Miss Alice