274 
tion for all classes of the people, and the accumulation of means of education and — 
opportunities for increasing knowledge here is most desirable. 
Now, the American Association for the Advancement of Science respectfully 
submits to thé Congress of the United States the propriety of creating an arboretum 
in or near the District of Columbia to be established under the direction of the De- 
partment of Agriculture, and asks that a sufficient appropriation be made for such 
establishment at once and further appropriations for its continuance. 
The following papers were read: Methods of Instruction in 
Vegetable Physiology, by J. C. Arthur, illustrated by apparatus 
used ; The Perfect Stage of Cercospora gossypina, by George F. 
Atkinson ; Notes on Egg Plant Diseases, by Byron D. Halsted ; 
Distribution of Some Fungi, by L. H. Pammel. 
B. E. Fernow, on behalf of the Forestry Division, U. S. Dept. 
Agric., presented catalogues of the trees and shrubs in the public 
grounds of the city, specially drepared for the visiting botanists.* 
FRIDAY, AUGUST 2Ist. 
President Wm. M. Canby in the chair. 
On motion of J. N. Rose the president was authorized 
to appoint a committee to endeavor to secure a more favor- 
able ruling from the Post Office authorities in regard to mailing 
of herbarium specimens. 
The following papers were read : Pecliminae Note ona Dis- 
ease of Currant Canes, by D. G. Fairchild; Two New Destruc- 
tive Weeds; Orobanche ramosa from the tobacco and hemp 
fields of Kentucky, and Sa/sola collina from the wheat fields of 
* Trees of Washington, D. C.—Geo. B. Sudworth and B. E. Fernow. (Pamph. pp. 
15, two maps ; compliments of the Forestry Division, U.S. Dept. Agric., Washington, 
D.C., Aug., 1891.) This little volume was prepared by the authors and distributed to 
the visiting botanists as a souvenir of the occasion, and in order to assist them in deter- 
mining the trees and shrubs in the public grounds of the city. The volume is divided 
into two parts, the first being a complete list of all the trees and shrubsnative and intro- 
duced thus far determined throughout the city, arranged according to natural orders, 
and the second being lists of the species growing in the grounds of the Department of 
_ Agriculture, President’s grounds and Lafayette Square. Maps accompany these latter 
on which each species or group of species is exactly located by number, correspond- 
Ing to the number of the name in the catalogue, so that any one with this volume 
in hand may locate a tree or shrub, or group of them, in the above mentioned 
grounds, and readily ascertain the name. The number of species and varieties listed 
in the Department of Agriculture grounds is 253, aud in Lafayette Square and Pres- 
ident’s grounds 106. The authors express the hope that the volume may assist to 
increase an interest in the idea of a National Arboretum, and they have certainly 
taken a very Bensing way to accomplish this result. AH 
