232 PEOCEEDINGS: BOTANICAL SOCIETY 



and in the United States were shown, together with a considerable 

 exhibit of manufactured bamboo articles. 



0. F. Cook: Botany of cacao and paiashte. The patashte tree is a 

 relative of the cacao, loiown to botanists under the name Theohroma 

 bicolor Humboldt and Bonpland. It has dimorphic branches like cacao, 

 the lateral branches being formed in whorls at the ends of the upright 

 shoots, but only 3 laterals in a whorl, instead of 5 or 6, as in cacao. 

 Many other differences in leaves, inflorescences and flowers were shown. 

 The inflorescences of patashte are confined to new growth at the ends 

 of the lateral branches, while cacao is caulocarpous, with all of the 

 flowers produced from the old wood on the trunk and larger limbs of 

 the tree. The various features were explained with lantern-slide illus- 

 trations, and the paper was followed by a brief discussion of the ques- 

 tion whether trees with such numerous and definite differences should 

 be classified in the same genus. 



W. E. Safford : Rediscovery of Lignum nephriticiwi. Lignum nephri- 

 ticum is a remarkable Mexican wood which was celebrated through- 

 out Europe in the 16th, 17th, and the early part of the 18th centuries, 

 not only for its reputed medicinal properties, but on account of the 

 wonderful fluorescence of its infusion in spring water. Scarcely a 

 fragment of this wood is now to be found in drug collections, and its 

 very name has disappeared from encyclopedias. It is celebrated as 

 the substance with which the Hon. Robert Boyle made his first inves- 

 tigations in the phenomenon of fluorescence. After giving a history 

 of the literature on the suljject Mr. Safford called attention to the 

 confusion surrounding the origin of the wood, and the causes which 

 prevented its botanical identification. For the first time specimens 

 of the wood accompanied by herbarium material of the plant from 

 which it was obtained have been the subject of critical study. The 

 heartwood produced the characteristic fluorescence described by Robert 

 Boyle, and the botanical material corresponded with Hernandez' original 

 description of the plant yielding lignum nephriticum. This proves to 

 be EysenhardtJa polystachya (Ortega) Safford (Viborquia polystachya 

 Ortega, Eysenhardtia amorphoides H. B. K.). The lecture was illus- 

 trated by lantern slides, specimens of the wood and botanical material, 

 photographic enlargments of sections of the wood made by Dr. Albert 

 Mann, plant morphologist; and also by exhibition of the fluorescence 

 of the extract of the wood in the rays of an arc light by Dr. Lyman 

 J. Briggs, physicist. Bureau of Plant Industry, with remarks as to the 

 value of lignum nephriticum as an indicator in titrimetric determina- 

 tions. (Author's abstract.) 



Perley Spaulding, Corresponding Secretary. 



