271 
The application of Mr. Arthur Hollick for recommendation to 
the Council of the Scientific Alliance for the grant of $50 for 
original research in palaeontology from the Newberry Research 
Fund, was endorsed and the secretary of.the club was in- 
structed to certify this action to the secretary of the Council of the 
Scientific Alliance, and to transmit with the certification a copy of 
Mr. Hollick’s application. 
Dr. Small, Chairman of the Field Committee, reported progress 
in the arrangement of excursions for the season. 
The Chairman announced to the Club the recent death of Dr, 
Emily L. Gregory, Professor in Botany in Barnard College, and 
remarked on her life and works. Dr. H. M. Richards, Dr. H. H. 
Rusby and Miss Alexandrina Taylor were appointed a committee 
to draw suitable resolutions and report them to the club at a sub- 
sequent meeting. : 
The Corresponding Secretary reported that all the correspond: 
ing members recently elected had accepted their elections. _ 
The scientific programme comprised the following papers :— 
1. By Prof. L. M. Underwood, “ Notes on the Ferns of Japan.” 
The immediate occasion of this paper was the receipt during 
the past year of two separate collections of Japanese ferns of about 
fifty species each, which, being from different portions of the 
island, scarcely duplicated each other. Some of the more interest- 
ing were shown, includin g Camptosorus Sibiricus, Cystopterts Japonica, 
- and Struthiopteris orientalis. 
The insular position of Japan together with a considerable 
range of latitude, equalling that from St. Paul, Minn., to Mobile, 
Ala., gives Japan a larger proportion of ferns than we have in the 
United States, although the area of the islands is only that of the 
northeastern States as far as the Virginias, together with about 
one-half of Ohio. 
The forms are those of temperate climates and agree well with 
those of the adjacent mainland so far as the latter are known. # 
few subtropical forms enter the flora, but the really tropical species 
do not reach the islands. 
Many species are common inhabitants of Furope as well as the 
eastern United States, but the ferns of Japan offer very little support . 
_to the once prevalent notion of the great similarity of its flora to” 
