﻿400 Proceedings of the Cll 



b 



Discussion followed, Dr. Britton, Mr. Clute, Dr. Rydberg, the 

 Secretary, and others participating. Commendation was given to 

 the attempt to simplify, to make use of the vernacular, and to 

 secure greater euphony. President Brown and Dr. T. F. Allen 

 deprecated the manufacture of book-names. Dr. Allen also 

 pointed out the confusion which has resulted from the improper 

 transfer of English and German names to plants which are kindred, 

 but not identical. The Secretary defended the use of vernacular 

 names, saying that they deserve more attention, and that in their 

 absence the generic name should be used unchanged. " Many 

 Latin names as Portulaca, win their way without change as soon 

 as once fairly made familiar. Coined names seldom live ; a name 

 to be successful must be a growth, as language is. Allowance 

 must be made for new discoveries, even in supposed monotypic 

 genera. Names like Witch-hazel are fitly treated as themselves 

 generic, not binomial. To drop the possessive often loses from 

 our thought an association with the discoverer which is worth pre- 

 serving. To drop the participle ending -ed is often however a 

 distinct gain, both in securing compactness and expressiveness." 



The second paper by Dr. N. L. Britton, " The Genus Par- 

 tkemutn in Eastern North America," was a description of a new 

 species of Partheuium, from near Charlotte, Va., intermediate in 

 leaf-margin between the pinnatifid leaves of tropical species and 

 the subentire leaves of the type P. integrifolium. Plants of the 

 latter from White Sulphur Springs, Va. are now cultivated at the 

 N. Y. Botanic Garden. 



The third paper, " The Influence of the Nucleus upon the For- 

 mation of Cell Walls," was by Prof. C. O. Townsend ; a sum- 

 mary is as follows : 



"It was observed by Klebs (PfefTer, Untersuch. a. d. Botan. 

 Inst. z. Tub. 2: 500) in 1888, that when cell conents are sep- 

 arated into two or more parts by plasmolysis, only the part 

 aining the nucleus is capable of forming a new cell wall. I' 1 

 the following year Palla (Flora, 1890, p. 314) perfc *" 



iments in which cell walls seemed to be formed 

 around the nucleus-free protoplasmic masses. The experiment- 

 undertaken in 1895 by the writer (Pringsheim's Jahrbucher, \%9' 

 were. solely to determine whether or not the nucleus is necessary 



con- 



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series of expe 



