"BEYOND THE WALLS"

Nation-wide praise of the Arnold Arboretum and an anonymous gift of one hundred thousand dollars for the forestry work at Petersham show that this branch of the University located outside of Cambridge is the most important institution of its kind. One is reminded that although a century ago the entire University could be seen from the belfry of the First Parish Church, today mail requires three weeks to reach the farthest branch.

The Arboretum on its hundred and forty acres has shrubs in number and variety sufficient to feed an army of the most epicurean locusts, and grows herbs to satisfy the meanest grub. At Jamaica Plain and in the Forest at Petersham are grown and studied all varieties of North American plants and trees; the Arboretum's annual "lilac week", which is nearly due, brings visitors from all distances; and the display of azaleas and rhododendrons which follows is equally notable.

Botany is not the only cause served by departments of the University "beyond the walls". The assistants of the Blue Hills Meteorological Observatory, for example, have gathered an unbroken record of the vagaries of New England weather since 1885--a task which proves them to be confirmed optimists. More constant, one might think, would be the lives of those who watch the fixed stars, but the announcement recently made of the discovery of 850 new nebulae by the Harvard Observatory at Arequipa, Peru, dispels that impression. That and the other station at Mandeville, Jamaica, in their observations of the Southern nebulae are filling a wide gap in earlier astronomy. From the central Observatory on the outskirts of Cambridge bulletins and plates of the discoveries are distributed.

The University has grown too big for the Yard. Besides those branches one must remember the Medical and Dental Schools firmly planted in Boston, the intermittent engineering camp at Squam Lake, and the representatives of libraries and museums who are rummaging abroad for treasures. When one is now asked where Harvard is located, he can reply with assurance only that the mailing address is Cambridge.