BEECHAM, SIR THOMAS ), British conduc tor and impresario, was born on April 29, 1879, the elder son of Sir Joseph Beecham, 1st Baronet. He was educated at Rossall school and Wadham college, Oxford, and gave his first concert with the Queen's hall orchestra in London in 1905. He founded and afterwards conducted the New Symphony and Beecham Symphony orchestras, and also the Beecham Opera Company with which he produced "The Wreckers," among other works, at His Majesty's theatre • in 1909. After producing operas by Delius ("Village Romeo and Juliet"), Strauss ("Electra") and others at Covent Garden theatre in the spring of 191 o he followed this sea son in the summer with another at His Majesty's, which had "Cosi fan tutte," "I1 Seraglio," "Feuersnot" and "Shamus O'Brien" among its leading features, and yet another at Covent Garden in the autumn, when Strauss's "Salome" was given for the first time in London. In 1911 and 1912 he was associated with the memor able first appearance in London, at Covent Garden, of the Russian ballet. Not less noteworthy were his activities in 1913, when he produced "Der Rosenkavalier" at Covent Garden in the spring, "Ariadne auf Naxos" in the summer at His Majesty's (in conjunc tion with Sir Herbert Tree) and in the autumn at Drury Lane a series of Russian operas, including "Boris Godounov," "Ivan the Terrible," and "Khovantchina," in which Chaliapin made his first appearance in England. Subsequent productions for which he was responsible included "Prince Igor," "Coq d'Or," "Nuit de Mai," " Rossignol" and "La Legende de Joseph" in 1914, and a large number of performances in English, given under the most difficult conditions, during the succeeding years of the World War. In 1916 he was knighted, and in the same year he succeeded to the baronetcy. After further seasons in 1919 and 1920 Sir Thomas suspended for some years his operatic activities, which, though so successful artistically, had entailed heavy financial losses, and dis banded his company, whose members subsequently formed them selves into the British National Opera Company and carried on independently upon a co-operative basis. In 1927, however, he took up the cause again and invited the support of the general musical public for an imperial league of opera, having for its object the permanent establishment of opera in London, and also in some of the leading provincial centres, upon an assured finan cial basis. Under this scheme opera lovers throughout the country were asked to pledge themselves to subscribe I os. per annum for five years, whereby it was estimated that a sum of £6o,000 per annum would be obtained to serve as a subsidy for the undertak ing. The project was cordially endorsed by the press and leading musical authorities, but the actual response of the public did not come up to expectations.
(Epifagus virginiana or Leptamnium vir ginianurn), a North American perennial of the broom-rape family, Orobanchaceae, called also cancer-root. It is parasitic on the roots of the American beech from New Brunswick to Wis consin, and southward to Florida and Louisiana. The slender, wiry, much-branched brown stems bear scattered inconspicuous scales but no leaves. The numerous flowers are borne in small clusters at the ends of the branches; the uppermost flowers, about : in. long, are whitish-purple and sterile, while the lower are minute and seed-bearing. Throughout the woodlands of east ern North America the beech-drops is usually the most common parasitic flowering plant. Its roots are attached by suckers to the roots of the beech and its seeds will germinate only when in contact with the roots of that tree.