Record. xxxvii 



He showed, that the science of botany had been greatly ad- 

 vanced by the study of plant-ecology or plant sociology, i. e. 

 by the study of plants in their external relations to each 

 other, and the adjustment of plants and their organs to their 

 physical surroundings. Formerly taxonomy or the determina- 

 tion of the position of plants in a scheme of classification, was 

 the aim of all students and teachers. Now the study of bot- 

 any is pursued on a broader scale, plants being studied as 

 living things, which are not scattered at haphazard over 

 the globe, but are organized into definite communities, de- 

 termined by the conditions, under which certain plants can 

 live. Ecologj', since it considers plants and their environ- 

 ments, takes the student directly into the field, instead of 

 confining him to herbarium specimens. Systematic botany, 

 while very essential, should always be made one of means, 

 and not the final end of botanical study. 



By a series of lantern slides, Prof. Eickenberry showed the 

 transition from a pond-society to a swamp-forest, beginning 

 with a lily-pond with sedges at the margin of the water. 

 Then, as the pond loses its water, the sedges and swamp- 

 grasses crowd in; this swamp-moor being followed by shrubs, 

 and finally by a swamp-forest, such as tamarack, pine and 

 hemlock. 



He also traced the development of plant societies, adapted 

 to dry air and soil, various plants, such as lichens, mosses 

 and small crevice plants being able to live upon bare rocks. 

 As these exposed rocks are weathered away, the crevice plants 

 become larger, and seeds of small plants find lodgment, 

 until, the fissures increasing in size, and more soil being 

 formed, shrubs and finally trees root there, resulting ulti- 

 mately in a forest. 



April 4, 1904. 



Attendance, fifty. 



President Edwin Harrison in the chair. 



The Treasurer reported further progress in voluntary 

 contributions. Previously reported, $228.00. Additional 

 receipts, $79.00. 



