BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 293 



attended than need be hereafter. Botanists should go to Phila- 

 delphia next year with specimens, queries and anything of botan- 

 ical interest, as the Club will give abundant opportunity for 

 informal discussions that could find no place in the regular sec- 

 tional meetings of biology. 



In regard to the botanical work done at Minneapolis during 

 the sessions of the section of biology, the following account will 

 give some idea. The papers are numbered in the order of their 

 presentation, without any reference to their association numbers. 



1. Prof. W. J. Beal, as Vice President of Section F, gave 

 the customary address at the opening of the sessions, showing 

 the important relations existing between agriculture and botany. 

 The address will speedily appear in full in Science. 



2. Dr. E. L Sturtevant read a paper upon " Parallelism 

 of structure of Maize and Sorghum Kernels," in which it was 

 very clearly shown that what must be considered as three dis- 

 tinct species of corn have been produced artificially, the regions 

 of chit, starch and corneous layer appearing quite constantly dif- 

 ferent in cross sections of flint, dent and pop-corn. 



3. D. P. Penhallow presented a paper on the *' Relation of 

 root and leaf areas; Corn," which, in the author's absence, was 

 read by abstract. 



4. E W. Claypole read a paper entitled " Note on the 

 present condition of the Box Huckleberry, Vaccinium brachycer- 

 um, in Perry county, Penn." A very satisfactory conclusion^ 

 this paper was reached when the author stated that he had with 

 him for distribution specimens of this very rare plant. 



5. Dr. E. L. Sturtevant. speaking of " Influence of posi- 

 tion on seed," showed by numerous experiments that in the case 

 of corn, at least, position goes for a great deal. 



6. Dr. E. L. SruRTEVANT, on "Agricultural Botany," struck 

 out boldly in a new and very important field. He claimed that 

 all fixed varieties of the agriculturist and horticulturist are fit 

 subjects of classification, and that for convenience of identifica- 

 tion they should be classified. Such arrangement, however, 

 should not be made to coincide with ordinary botanical classifi- 

 cation, for in the latter species are treated as the resultants of 

 natural forces ; but in order to produce the varieties of agricul- 

 ture and horticulture an entirely new force comes into play, 

 namely, the intelligence of man, and its results should be classi- 

 fied on a new basis. A scheme was hinted at, but not clearly 

 defined; but enough was given to make it evident that the author 

 had opened up a new world of labor, which it is for him now to 



