42 proceedings: botanical society 



Di". L. O. Howard made remarks on a recent article in a French sci- 

 entific journal giving analysis of bread found on a Zeppelin, some of 

 rye made into sandwiches of suet, and some of rye and rice with cheese, 

 it being of notably better quality than bread taken from German pris- 

 oners, some of the latter being made in part of the inner bark of pop- 

 lar trees. 



W. P. Hay exhibited lantern slides of the marine turtles of east- 

 ern North America with an account of their habits, distinctive 

 characters, and uses to man. Discussed by Gen. T. E. Wilcox and by 

 Admiral Baird who described a native method of catching hawkbill 

 turtles without injuring the skull. 



Alex. Wetmore remarked on red bats seen November 17. Dis- 

 cussed by Vernon Bailey and by M. W. Lyon, Jr., who had seen brown 

 bats flying in the evening during the Christmas holidays several years 

 ago at Hyattsville. 



The regular program was as follows: 



Charles Wardell Stiles: Haak as author of Br-isson's 1762 edition 

 of Regnum Animate. Dr. Stiles being out of the city on sanitary work 

 at one of the southern military camps, the paper was presented by Dr. 

 T. S. Palmer. The work was exhibited and it was shown thatBrisson 

 was not its author. Dr. Palmer gave some interesting facts about the 

 life of Brisson and some of his contemporary associates. 



Lieut. M. W. Lyon, Jr.: The relative resistance of the red blood cor- 

 puscles of the sheep, ox, and hog. A resume of the hemolytic action of 

 human serum, certain fish serum, and hypotonic salt solutions on these 

 corpuscles was given. The results are being published in the Journal 

 of Infectious Diseases. 



M. W. Lyon, Jr., Recording Secretary. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 123d regular meeting of the Society was held at the Cosmos 

 Club, Tuesday, November 6, 1917. Fifty-nine members and 4 guests 

 were present. Among the guests were Dr. L. P. De Bussy, now on 

 his way from Sumatra to Amsterdam, Holland, to become' Director of 

 the Colonial Museum at the latter place, and also Prof. H. H. Whetzel, 

 in charge of the Plant Pathology Department, Cornell University, 

 Ithaca, N. Y. The program was devoted to a discussion of some of 

 the newly-discovered diseases of corn. 



G. N. Collins: Maize: Its origi^i and relationships. The reasons 

 for believing that maize has originated as a hybrid between teosinte, 

 EuchlaeJia 7nexicana, and some member of the Andropegoneae were 

 reviewed.^ Maize is dependent on cross fertilization for normal and 

 vigorous development. It has now been demonstrated that teosinte 

 does not share with maize this intolerance of self-pollination. Thus 

 maize appears to be unique among the grasses in possessing this charac- 

 teristic of hybrids. The inheritances of the characters separating 

 maize and teosinte have been studied in hybrids and none were found 



1 Journ. Wash. Acad. Sci. 2, .520-530. 1912. 



