PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF vSCIENCES 



The Board of Managers met on February 24, 191 9. Mr. Frederick 

 V. CoviLLE was elected vice-president to represent the National Geo- 

 graphic Society. A committee consisting of A. S. Hitchcock, Adoi^ph 

 Knopf, and W. R. Maxon was appointed to recommend to the Board 

 alternate plans for the sale of the Proceedings of the Academy. 



The meeting of the Board on March 10, 19 19, was devoted to the 

 consideration of nominees for membership. 



Robert B. Sosman, Corresponding Secretary. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF WAvSHINGTON 



The 134th regular meeting of the Society was held at the Cosmos 

 Club at 8 p.m., Tuesday, March 4, 1919. Forty-eight members and 

 six guests were present. Mr. G. Hamilton Martin, Jr., of the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry, was elected to membership. The program con- 

 sisted of the following papers: 



A botanical trip to the Haivaiian Islands (with lantern) : Prof. A. S. 

 Hitchcock. During the summer and fall of 191 6, the speaker visited 

 the Hawaiian Islands, including in his travel the islands of Hawaii, 

 Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, and Lanai. Hawaii, the largest island, 

 is about 100 miles wide and contains about 4000 square miles. On 

 this are the two highest peaks, Mauna Kea (13,825 feet) and Mauna 

 Loa (13,675 feet), and the active volcano or lava pit, Kilauea. On 

 Maui is the great crater of Haleakala, said to be the largest in the 

 world. Honolulu is on Oahu; the Leper Colony on Molokai. 



The three important industries are the raising of sugar, stock, and 

 pineapples. The ranches are located mostly on Hawaii, Maui, Molokai, 

 and Lanai, the largest being about 700,000 acres. As there are few 

 streams or wells in the drier parts of the islands the water supply is, 

 for the most part, rainwater stored in tanks. 



The introduced ornamental trees and shrubs are numerous and con- 

 spicuous, and introduced weeds have supplanted the native flora in 

 the vicinity of the inhabited parts of the island. xVmong the important 

 or peculiar plants of the islands may be mentioned the koa {Acacia 

 koa), a common and useful native forest tree; the algaroba {Prosopis 

 jidijlora, introduced from America; the lobelias, consisting of about 

 100 species and 5 genera of Lobeliaceae, most of the species being 



204 



