474 JOURNAL OF THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES VOL. 11, NO. 19 



A preliminary report was made by Dr. A. S. Hitchcock on the question of 

 providing Russian men of science with scientific literature. 



Regular Program 



Haven Metcalf: The story of a plant introduction. (Address of the 

 retiring President, illustrated with lantern slides.) 



Because of various diseases and other factors, rice culture in the South 

 Atlantic States was on the decline in the early nineteen hundreds. One 

 rice disease in South Carohna called "blast" or "rotten-neck" was very 

 serious. In order to study the disease further, Dr. and Mrs. Metcalf took a 

 trip to Italy and found that the "Brusone" was the same as blast in South 

 Carolina. Resistant rices were secured and introduced into the United 

 States. They did not retain their resistance, but one of them, now known 

 as Colusa, by still further selection, has become the second in production 

 in California, producing in 1919 1,655,000 bushels of grain, with an estimated 

 farm value of over four million dollars. (A fuller discussion of Dr. Met- 

 calf s address will be published elsewhere.) 



Roy G. Pierce, Recording Secretary. 



151ST meeting 



The 151st regular meeting of the Society was held in the Assembly Hall 

 of the Cosmos Club at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, 1921. 51 members 

 and guests were present. President Charles E. Chambliss presided. 

 Mr. Soren Sorenson and Mr. D. Rudolf Kuraz were elected to member- 

 ship. Mr. P. L. RiCKER reported on the work of the committee on the 

 preservation of the Shaw water lily garden. A contribution from the Botan- 

 ical Society toward the printing of a pamphlet and map in furtherance of the 

 project was requested, and was authorized. Mr. RickER announced a 

 series of "hikes" conducted by the Wild Flower Preservation Society and 

 invited the members to join them. 



Regular Program 



W. H. Weston: Following a fungus through the Philippines. 



This lecture was illustrated with lantern slides exhibiting various phases 

 of the botany of the islands, particularly the terraced rice fields, the tropical 

 jungles, and the conditions surrounding the development and spread of the 

 downy mildew of maize. 



All but one of the known species of the downy mildews of corn occur in 

 the Orient. No conception of the terrifically destructive effect of this dis- 

 ease can be gained from comparison with any disease known in America. 

 Whole fields are destroyed. The disease is carried through the season by 

 the production of enormous numbers of conidia. Saccharmn spontaneum, 

 wild grass, Miscanthus japonicus, and a primitive type of cultivated sugar 

 cane growing in the remote interior of Northern Luzon were also found to be 

 hosts of this disease. Maize of flinty, poor yielding, tropical types was 

 found to be grown under widely varying conditions, ranging from the swampy 

 soil and coral sand of the hot, humid coast, to the precipitous rocky slopes 

 of high elevations in the cooler mountainous interior. Waxy maize, hitherto 

 known only from China and Burma, was collected from two widely separated 

 localities. On all these types the mildew was, under favorable conditions, 

 almost equally destructive, its ravages, which were aided greatly by the 



