The Mickoscopk. 243 



Microscopists who are really in earnest cannot afford to absent 

 themselves from these yearly gatherings, for, as we have before 

 ui'ged, the interchange of thought and the forming of new friend- 

 ships, is a stimulus to renewed and better work, and in many ways 

 of exceeding benefit. 



A full report of the meeting will appear in our September 

 issue. 



GRAY MEMORIAL BOTANICAL CHAPTER OF THE 

 AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION. 



THE members of this Association reside in California, Minne- 

 sota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Colorado and Kansas, and 

 are mostly amateur botanists, isolated from the great centers with 

 the facilities for study offered by public libraries, laboratories and 

 schools. The aim of the Chapter is to create an enthusiasm and 

 interest in the study of botany by means of correspondence and 

 interchange of specimens. 



We believe that this Association is capable of excellent work, 

 and that the results will be of benefit not only to the individual 

 members, but also to the communities in which they reside. We 

 have only words of encouragement for those who undertake the 

 study of nature, and the greater the obstacles in the way of such 

 study the greater the credit and personal gain to the stvident. We 

 hope that the members of this new Society will not neglect the 

 microscopical study of plants, nor let the fascination of pressing, 

 drying and mounting lead them away from work on vegetable 

 histology. 



THE ST. LOUIS CLUB OF MICROSCOPISTS. 



^ I HE regular monthly meeting was held Tuesday evening, July 

 -*- 10, with fifty per cent, of the members present. A. J. 

 Hoenney, who was on the programme for the evening, was unable 

 to be present. Frank Davis presented mounts of teeth from 

 newly-born pigs, and explained the methods of growth. He stated 

 that he was working with a dentist who expects to be able to 

 announce some new theories about the nutrition of teeth. Prof. 

 Whelpley reported on the microscopic examination of gum arable, 

 and showed crystals of oxalate of calcium formed by acidulating a 

 mucilage of gum arable with acetic acid, and precipitating with 

 oxalate of ammonium. This is a new reaction for the gum. 



