60 



to the mistakes in books as to the colors of some Western flowers ; 

 and Miss Banning has some notes on Maryland fungi. 



^ 55. The Syracuse Botanical Club- — The Annual Meeting was 

 held on the 23rd of March, and we proceeded to elect officers for 

 the ensuing year. Much to the regret of the Club, Mrs. Gifford, 

 Vice-President, and Mrs. Myers, Secretary, resigned their offices. At 

 our next meeting the work of each member will be laid out for the 

 coming year- The officers elected for 1881 are: President, Mrs. S. M. 

 Rust; Vice-President, Mrs. M. C, Still; Corresponding Secretary, 

 Mrs. Kate Barnes; Recording Secretary, Mrs, PI. Rowling; Treas- 

 urer, M}s. A. D. Fairbanks. 



Syracuse, March 29th. Kate Barnes, Corresp. Secretary. 



56. Proceedings of the Torrey Club. — The regular meeting 



of the Club was held at the Herbarium, Columbia College, Tuesday 

 evening, April 12th, the President in the chair, and sixteen members 

 and two visitors present. 



Teratology. — Mr. Gerard exhibited a specimen of Fucjisia leaves 

 which w'ere coherent by their margins and petioles^ sent by Mr. James 

 Cook, of Canada, for the Club's inspection ; also, from another 

 source, a specimen showing adhesion of two flowers of Fuchsia. 



Mr. Hollick read some notes on variations which had'^een ob- 

 served by him in flowers, fruits and leaves. In addition to some ab- 

 normal forms which have already been referred to in the Bulletin, 

 he noted the following: Thalictrum anemonoides^ Michx., variety in 

 which all the sepals were green; staminody in Narcissus poetictiSy a 

 garden scape in which most of the petals were rolled up and tipped 

 with an imperfect anther; Carya porcina^ Nutt., exhibiting a peculiar 

 distortion of the fruit (specimens shown), occurring year after year 

 near Court House Station on the Staten Island Railroad; Castanea 

 vesca^ var, Americana^ with nuts much larger than usual and covered 

 witli a dense tomentum ; and Lysiniachia quadrijolia^ L., with 3, 5 

 and 6 leaves in a whorl, and also with leaves alternate. 



Mr. Bicknell read some notes (illustrating them with specimens) 

 on some variations in ferns. Of the specimens shown and de- 

 scribed, there were some of Botrychium matricariaefolinm^ A. Br., in 

 which both the sterile and fertile segments were variously distorted. 

 Sporangia, both scattered and clustered, were borne on various por- 

 tions of the sterile segments, while the fertile segments, besides show- 

 ing a tendency to become foliaceous, were very singularly branched 

 in one instance showing a well-marked apical division. Another 

 specimen shown was a frond of Phegopteris hexagonoptera^ Fee, in 

 which the two basal pinnae were very greatly developed, giving the 

 whole plant somew^hat the habit oi P, Dryopteris. Still another spe- 

 cimen w^as one of Aspidium spinulosum^ Swz., which, by the peculiar 

 growth of the axis, had been brought into such a position as to cause 

 the frond to resemble a five-pointed star. 



Messrs- Brown, Hollick and Schrenk were appointed a commit- 

 tee on field excursions for the coming season. 



Two corresponding and five active members were elected. 



