UNIVERSITY'S BOTANISTS WORK WITH ARMY CAMOUFLAGE MEN

"The best thing yet in the camouflage field of fresh vegetation," explains Professor of Botany Elmer D. Merrill, is the result of work carried out by University botanists. Projects on classifying poisonous and edible wild plants in the various theaters of war have also occupied the recent work of the botanists.

Recent camouflage techniques employ the use of natural vegetation in the combat zones. The experimenters from the staffs of the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard forest, Biological Laboratories, and Maria Moors Cabot Foundation for Botanical Research have compiled figures on the "lasting period of cut foliage." Heretofore, the time in which this camouflage material would wilt in the field was unknown by any authorities.

Experiments with special wax sprays occupied part of the time of the botanists, but their attention was soon turned to the more practical question of how long the foliage would stand up under battle conditions. Research parties were sent to Florida and to the Army Engineers Headquarters at Fort Belvoir, Virginia to help compile the facts on camouflage to be used in the tropical and north temperate zones, respectively.

Most of the work carried on by University authorities is being contributed to the government with expenses paid by the Botanical foundations.