212 proceedings: biological society 



respects, however, the herbaria both of Europe and America are managed 

 much as they were a century ago. There is no adequate realization of 

 the enormously increased facilities for travel and for the collection, ship- 

 ment and preservation of perishable material. It would seem absolutely 

 essential that directors of herbaria recognize the necessity of not only 

 maintaining the usual collection of dried plants, but also full collections 

 of fruits and of alcoholic material of delicate and characteristic portions 

 of the plant such as inflorescences and parts of the flowers. Such collec- 

 tions are occasionally to be found, but are very rarely indexed so as to be 

 easily .accessible. 



The increasing importance given to type specimens leads to a consider- 

 ation of the best method of preserving them. The present method 

 of leaving types with the other specimens, is certain to result in their 

 rapid deterioration and ultimate loss. Type specimens should by all 

 means be kept in a separate collection under special protection against 

 fire and insect depredations and should be examined only in the presence 

 of a custodian. 



In considering type material it is important to recognize that in plants, 

 type specimens can often be multiplied indefinitely simply by cutting 

 branches from the same plant or by securing flowers or fruits from the 

 same plant during successive years. These types which are secured 

 from the same plant individual are designated as merotypes. 1 They 

 are destined to become of very great importance in the future develop- 

 ment of taxonomic botanical research. It is an easy matter nowadays 

 when a new species of tree or shrub is found to mark the plant in a per- 

 manent way and to provide for supplying all the principal herbaria of 

 the world with merotypes, by collecting material from this plant every 

 time it comes into flower or fruit. W. W. Stockberger, 



Corresponding Secretary. 



THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 494th regular meeting of the Society was held at the Cosmos Club 

 on February 17, 1912. Under the head of brief notes E. M. Kindle 

 exhibited lantern slides showing impressions made by tadpoles in the 

 ooze of very shallow ponds and suggested a similar origin to many of 

 the peculiar markings in rocks. 



The first regular communication was by H. M. Smith and Lewis Rad- 

 cliffe: Notes on some remarkable deep sea fishes from the Albatross 

 Philippine cruise. 



The first speaker referred in a general way to the reults of the Alba- 

 tross expedition to the Philippine Islands, and then discussed some fea- 

 tures of the fish collections from deep water. This region was an almost 



1 This word may be defined as follows: Merotype, (m«pos a part; tvitos a type) 

 In taxonomy, a part of an organism that furnished the type specimen of a new 

 species. It is obvious that merotypes are of importance only in case of perennial 

 plants or of vegetatively propagated lower animals. 



