i»9i-l Botanical Papers at the A. A. A. S. 255 



Botanical papers at the Washington meeting of the 



A. A. A. S. 



At this meeting, beginning August 19, an unusually large 

 number of botanical papers were presented, of which we give 

 the following abstracts: 



The possibilities of Economic Botany: the address of the 

 retiring president of the association, Dr. GEORGE L. 

 GOODALE. — The address was introduced by a brief descrip- 

 tion of the speaker's recent trip through Australasia and Japan, 

 where many of our possible economic plants were met. Many 

 examples were given of the useful plants which mankind may 

 hope to employ' in the near future. The assertion was made 

 that if all our present cereals were swept out of existence our 

 experiment stations could probably replace them by other 

 grasses within half a century, the methods being selection and 

 hybridization. New vegetables may reasonably be expected 

 from Japan, a country whose flora has.such remarkable re- 

 semblance to our own. The fruits of the future will tend 

 more and more toward becoming seedless, just as certain fruits 

 are now. All the great groups of economic products were 



taken up in turn and their possible improvement described. 

 The speaker urged the importance of the establishment of a 

 series of gardens in different parts of the country, where ex- 

 periments can be carried on in hybridizing and selection, and 

 expressed the opinion that such establishments should be 

 neither governmental nor academic. A complete abstract of 

 the address is not possible, as it was a collection of facts that 

 cannot be condensed. The paper will be published in full in 

 the Am. your, of Science for October, and also, translated 

 into German, in the Pharmaceutische Rundschau. It is an ex- 

 ceedingly valuable contribution to the literature of Economic 

 Hotany. 



Illustrations of heredity in plant hybrids: DR. J- M. MAC- 

 FARLANE, of Edinburgh University.— This address was the 

 public lecture of Friday evening and was tully illustrated b> 

 the use of three lanterns, showing side by side the structures 

 of each parent and the hybrid. The points made were as fol- 

 lows: Some hybrids are exactly intermediate in histological 

 details between parents. Parents in such cases are nearly re- 

 lated histologically and the progeny often fertile. bom< 



