294 Botanical Meetings. [zoe 



The names of the first ten selected are not given, but the 

 whole twenty-five are as follows: J. C Arthur, G. F. Atkinson, 

 L- H. Bailey, C. R. Barnes, C. E. Bessey, E- G. Britton, N. E. 

 Britton, D. H. Campbell, J. M. Coulter, F. V. Coville, Daniel C 

 Eaton, W. G. Farlow, E. E- Greene, B. D. Halsted, Arthur 

 Hollick, Conway McMillan, B. E. Robinson, C. S. Sargent, F. E. 

 Scribner, J. Donnell Smith, Roland Thaxter, William Trelease, 

 E. M. Underwood, Eester F. Ward, W. P. Wilson. "Two 

 informal meetings of those of the above list in attendance were 

 subsequently held," and a committee was instructed to inform 

 the others of the twenty-five charter members of the action taken,^ 

 to draw up a constitution, and to report at a meeting to be held 

 beginning on the Monday preceding the next meeting of the 

 American Association. 



One would think that there must be a strong motive on the 

 part of some one to form a society in the face of an adverse 

 report of eight out of ten of the committee. That the names do 

 not all represent the best of American botany will probably be 

 conceded. Certainly some of those included set the standard 

 sufficiently low that the young man who has to " win his spurs'' 

 before admittance need not grow gray in the effort. It would 

 also be interesting to know which of the botanists honored, con- 

 sented to the use of their names, and why all of the editors 

 of the Botanical Gazette should be included, while the Torrey 

 Bulletin is cut off with only four. 



INTERNATIONAL BOTANICAL CONGRESS AT MADISON. 



In July of the present year a call was issued for an Inter- 

 national Botanical Congress to be held at Madison, Wisconsin, 

 at the end of the session of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, to be held at that place. The people 

 of the United States are never accused of undue modesty, and in 

 so far as the originators of the movement are concerned, the 

 American botanists have shown themselves no unworthy sons of 

 the nation. Their "International Congress" is likely to go 

 down into history as an ineffectual attempt by a fragment of the 

 American tail to wag the botanical dog. 



Early in the year 1892, when the subject was first broached 



