142 THE JOUEXAL OF BOTANY 



Internationale des Botanistes, and therefore the present committtee had 

 no longer any status. He then suggested the possibilit}^ of holding a 

 Botanical Congress on somewhat different lines after the declaration 

 of peace ; this might perhaps take the form of an Imperial Congress. 

 The Treasui-er stated that the unexpended balance of the funds 

 collected for the local expenses might be used for the purpose of 

 another Congress provided the consent of the subscribers was ob- 

 tained. The following resolutions were then ])assed : — 



(1) That the Organizing Committee be forthwith dissolved and 

 that the Members thereof become Members of a new Organizing 

 Committee with a view to considering after the declaration of peace 

 proposals for further action in regard to holding a Botanical Congress. 



(2) That the Members of the former Executive Committee are 

 hereby appointed the Executive Committee of this Committee as now 

 reconstituted, and that such Executive Committee be insti-ucted at the 

 proper time to submit to this Committee such proj^osals and sugges- 

 tions as they may consider desirable in regard to the holding of a 

 Botanical Congress. 



(3) That the subscribers to the fund for the International 

 Botanical Congress of 1915 be invited to alloAV the halance of their 

 subscriptions unexpeuded (and subject to the discharge of any out- 

 standing liabilities) to be handed to the new Executive Committee in 

 furtherance of the above objects. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on March 15, Dr. R. R. 

 Gates, F.L.S., read a paper entitled '*A Sj'stematic vStudj of the 

 North American JSIdcuithacece from the Genetic Standpoint." His 

 assumption, based upon experiment during the last fifteen years, is 

 that the variations which mark species have not been universally 

 continuous and infinitesimal, but often definite and discontinuous. 

 Definite variation is not necessarily orthogenetic variation, but marked 

 variation which may occur in any, or in many, directions simul- 

 taneously. The experience gained in Avork on the mutations in 

 (Enothera is turned to account in this group of Liliales Avhich has 

 not hitherto been the subject of experiment. Pairs of species have been 

 taken and investigated on this basis. Related genera showing marked 

 differences in structure often co-exist side by side, showing that these 

 differences cannot be claimed as of selective value, but have arisen 

 from " spontaneous variation " and have been perpetuated by heredity. 



Two parts, costing a shilling each, of the Natural History Report 

 of the British Antarctic ("Terra Nova") Expedition of 11)10 have 

 been issued by the British Museum (Natural History), containing 

 the Algse. Pai-t I. contains the Freshwater Algie by J)r. Eritsch ; 

 this includes a very full account of Frasiola crispa^ which grows in 

 great abundance at Cape Adare and descriptions of two new species — 

 PhormicUum JPriestleiji and Scliizothrix antarctica : these and other 

 forms are figured on an accompanying plate. Part II. includes the 

 Marine Alga3, by Mr. and Mrs. Gepp, in the course of which a ])lant 

 described and figured by them as F lor idea in this Journal for 1905 

 (p. 193, t, 472) is identified with Curdiea Bacovifzce Hariot : the 

 MelohesiecB are by Madame Paul Leraoine, wdio desciibes and figures 

 two new species — Lithothamnium Geppii -AVi^ L. trlnidadeiisc. 



