﻿520 Proceedings of the Club 



tered sheets, neither mounted nor classified, but with labels supplied 

 in his own hand. 



. Dr. Britton announced the recent purchase by the New York- 

 Botanic Garden of the herbarium and botanical collections of Prof. 

 Lewis R. Gibbs, of Charleston, S. C, through his daughter, Miss 



Ma 



ia R. Gibbs. The herbarium of Elliott is in bad preservation, 

 and much of it gone entirely. The Gibbs herbarium is deemed of 

 special value as illustrative of Elliott's plants. 



Wednesday Evening, May 25, 1898. 



There were 38 persons present. 



President Brown was in the chair. 



The minutes were read and approved. 



Mr. Bastedo called attention to the forthcoming three-days' 

 excursion to Pt. Pleasant, N. J., in connection with the Philadel- 

 phia Academy of Sciences. 



The evening was devoted to discussion and exhibition of acau- 

 lescent purple violets, introduced by a paper on " The Acaules- 

 cent Violets" by Mr. C. L. Pollard, of Washington, D. C, read 

 by Dr. Hollick. This paper, soon to be printed, was the result of 

 field study of the last two years, mainly in the Middle States, from 

 which. states most of our original species-types were derived. Mr. 

 Pollard now describes 1 8 species and 3 varieties. He remarked 

 that for violet characters we must depend upon unremitting field 

 work. Herbarium material is useless except as fortified by previ- 

 ous familiarity with the appearance while growing. Large num- 

 bers of individuals must be studied and every feature of the 

 environment must be noted. Careful attention must be given not 

 only to habit but to habitat, to texture of herbage, color of the 

 flowers, to position of the cleistogenes, to nervation, to shape and 



pubescence of leaves, and to the nature of the surrounding vege- 

 tation. 



A series of mounted specimens illustrating this paper was ex- 

 hibited by Dr. Britton, and a large number of fresh specimens 

 were passed, the result of collections sent in by Miss Sanial and by 

 Messrs. Rusby and Crawford, and by Drs. Rusby and Hulst. 



The Club was adjourned to the second Tuesday in October. 



• Edward S. Burgess, Secretary. 



