lis JOURNAL OF THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES VOL. 11, NO. 5 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY 

 14.3th meeting 



The 14.3th regular meeting of the Botanical Society of Washington was 

 held at the Cosmos Club, S p. m., October 5, 1920. Thirty-three members 

 and one guest were present. 



Mr. Albert A. Hansen gave an illustrated talk on Our disappearing wild 

 plants. He explained that although the transition which our flora is under- 

 going is attributable to some extent to such unavoidable causes as lumbering; 

 building, the cultivation of new land and grazing, the greatest damage is due 

 to avoidable causes, such as the promiscuous gathering of wild flowers by 

 thoughtless pickers and the commercial exploitation of the wild flora. He 

 also referred to the educational methods used by the Wild Flower Preserva- 

 tion Society of America to create a strong sentiment in favor of protecting 

 our handsome wild plants. Among the plants needing protection are col- 

 umbine, arbutus, pitcher plants, ground pine, flowering dogwood, rhododen- 

 dron, and several lilies and orchids. 



20th annual meeting 



The 2()th annual meeting of the Botanical Society of Washington was held 

 at the Cosmos Club, October .3, 1920. The following officers were elected 

 for the ensuing year: President, Chas. E. Chambliss; Vice-President, P. L. 

 Ricker; Recording Secretary, Roy G. Pierce; Corresponding Secretary, 

 R. Kent Beattie; Treasurer, L. L. Harter. Prof. A. S. Hitchcock was 

 nominated for Vice-President in the Washington Academy of Sciences. 



Charles E. Chambliss, Recording Secretary. 



146th meeting 



The 146th meeting of the Society was held at the Cosmos Club on No- 

 vember 2, 1920, 62 members and guests being present, and the President, 

 ]Mr. Charles E. Chambliss, in the chair. 



Under Brief Notes Dr. A. S. Hitchcock spoke of the valuable collection of 

 vSouth American grasses just received by the National Herbarium from 

 Germany. The program was as follows: 



W. E. vSafford: The first Pan-Pacific Scientific Conference (illustrated). 



This conference, at which Dr. SafTord was a delegate from the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, was held at Honolulu, August 2 to August 20, 1920. 

 Delegates were present from the United States, British Columbia, Hawaii, 

 New Zealand, Australia, New South Wales, the Philippine Islands, and Japan. 



The scope of the topics discussed was very wide, embracing a discussion 

 of most of the physical and biological phenomena of the Pacific. The sessions 

 of the Conference were interrupted by a visit to the active volcano of Kilauea 

 and an excursion around the west coast of the island of Hawaii. 



As a result of the conference, a number of resolutions were presented by 

 the various sections, among them the following: 



That any agency created for the guidance of scientific research and ex- 

 ploration in the Pacific region should be affiliated with the International 

 Research Council; that the attention of Governments be invited to the de- 

 sirability of providing vessels for suitably planned expeditions of scientific 

 research, similar in character to the Wilkes and the Challenger expeditions; 

 that young men and women should be trained for scientific work and that 

 such work be adequately compensated. Other resolutions bore upon the 



