1910] The Ottawa Naturalist. 219 



MEETING OF THE BOTANICAL BRANCH. 



The third meeting of the Botanical Branch was hehl on 

 December 11th, at the residence of Mr. George Michaud. There 

 were present: Messrs. G. H. Clark, James M. Macoun, Wm. T. 

 Macoun, A. E. Attwood. H. Groh, R. MacMillan, Norman 

 Criddle, R. B. White and the Chairman. 



The subject for the evening was "The \alue of the seeds 

 as a means of identifying plants." The seeds were shown bv 

 Mr. Michaud to be very important in identifying plants on 

 account of their more constant characters, being less affected bv 

 environment than are other organs such as leaves, flowers, etc. 

 A collection of specimens mounted on slides was exhibited 

 showing the generic characteristics of the most important 

 families of our wild and cultivated plants in their normal and 

 different conditions, as found in commercial samples of seed 

 grain. Special slides showing the following interesting points 

 were also shown: 



1. Similaritv of the external appearance of seeds of quite 

 different botanical groups; e.g., SHpa spartea vrs. Erodiumcicu- 

 tarium, Saponaria officinalis vrs. Astragalus caryocarpus, Sapo- 

 naria Vaccaria vrs. Brassica Rapa, Cynoglossum officinale vrs. 

 Ranunculus tnberculatus. Euphorbia Helioscopia vrs. Neslia pani- 

 culata, Glycyrrhiza lepidoia YTS. Xanthium canadense, and others. 



2. Apparent dissimilarity of external characters of seeds 

 belonging to the same botanical groups; e.g., Corispermum 

 hyssopifolium vrs. Atriplex patula, Poteniilla monspeliensis vrs. 

 Rosa acicularis . Agrimonia gryposepalavrs. Geum album, Tnfolium 

 repens vrs. Glycyrrhiza lepidota, Geranium Bicknellii vrs. Erodmm 

 cicutarium, Apium graveolens vrs. Washingtonia longistylis vrs. 

 Heracleum lanatum, Lithospermum arvense vrs. L. officinale, Cyno- 

 glossum officinale \v&. Myosotis palusiris, Mimulus ringens vrs. 

 Linaria indgaris, Achillea Millefolium vrs. Bidens frondosa. and 

 others. 



Specimens of dead leafless plants, collected under the snow 

 at the end of November, which had been identified through 

 single seeds still found on them, were also shown. 



The purity work of the Seed Laboratory was also discussed 

 and shown to be simply an identification of i)lantsby the seeds 

 onlv. 



Those who were present at this meeting were much interested 

 in seeing the specimens of seeds of certain species which, without 

 a magnifving glass or microscope, appeared identical with seeds 

 of other species, even of other genera, but which on being put 

 under the glass showed striking differences in the marking of 



