420 proceedings: botanical society 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY 



141 ST MEETING 



The 141st regular meeting of the Botanical Society of Washington 

 was held at the Cosmos Club at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Februar}^ 3, 1920. 

 Seventy members and six guests were present. Messrs. R. P. Mar- 

 shall, E. W. Brandes, Henry F. Bain, S. D. Gray, E. G. Arzberger, 

 Geo. M. Reed, and O. F. Berger, of the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, and Prof. Richard E. Schuh, of Washington, were elected 

 to membership. 



As the retiring President for 1918, Mr. Walter T. Swingle gave an 

 address on Chinese botany and Chinese botanists. It was illustrated 

 with lantern slides and by an exhibit of books. The speaker sketched 

 the study of Chinese botany and the study of European plants and 

 outlined plans for a more effective study of the Chinese flora. 



As the retiring President for 19 19, Dr. Karl F. Kellerman gave 

 an address on The effects of salts of boron upon the distribution of desert 

 vegetation. He stated that it appears that the portions of the deserts 

 completely devoid of vegetation are in many cases contaminated with 

 borax deposits. It also seems clear that the salts of boron must be 

 regarded as of fundamental importance in considering ecological re- 

 lationships of native plants, and also in considering the agricultural 

 use of land or water in regions containing natural deposits of these 

 salts. 



142D meeting 



The 142nd regular meeting of the Botanical Society of Washington 

 was held at the Cosmos Club at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 2, 1920. Ninety- 

 seven members and ten guests were present. Dr. F. E. Kempton, 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, w^as elected to membership. 



Brief notes and reviews of literature 



Mr. M. B. Waite exhibited a number of panicles of Paulownia 

 tomentosa, commonly planted as an ornamental tree in Washington, 

 D. C, and often escaping from cultivation. This tree, a native of 

 Central China, not Japan, as often stated, is remarkable in that the 

 flowering panicles, often a foot in length, fully formed in summer with 

 large naked buds, go through the winter with no protection except the 

 wool on the calyx. The statement of Mr. W. T. Swingle at a previous 

 meeting that this tree was an immigrant from the tropics into the tem- 

 perate regions of China, might explain the origin of the peculiar naked 

 panicles. This Paulownia has evidently been able to make the neces- 

 sary physiological adjustments to become cold-resistant, standing 

 temperatures of 0° to possibly —15° F., but has not made the usual 

 morphological adjustments of temperate-zone trees by covering its 

 cluster-buds or individual flower buds with protective bud scales. 



Mr. C. V. Piper exhibited specimens of bastard toad-flax (Comandra 

 pallida A. DC.) which has recently been found parasitic on the roots of 



