ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OP SCIENCE. (AMERICAN.) 



31 



not ; " Variation versus Heredity," by Henry S. 

 Williams ; " The Proposed Attempt to introduce 

 Blastophaga psenes into California," by Leland 0. 

 Howard; "The Records for 1898 of Broods VII 

 and XVII of Cicada sepfendecim," by Charles L. 

 Marlatt; "On the Genitalia of Ants, and their 

 Value in Classification," by William H. Ashmead ; 

 " Naples Station : General Description and Notes 

 on Methods of Work employed there," " General 

 Statement of Types and Figured Specimens of Fos- 

 sil Invertebrates in the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History," and "Measurements of Two Large 

 Lobsters recently added to the Collections of the 

 American Museum of Natural History," by Ed- 

 mund 0. Hovey; "On the Present State of our 

 Knowledge of the North American Tertiary Mol- 

 lusk-fauna," by William K. L>all ; "Some New 

 Points in Dinichthyicl," by Charles R. Eastman ; 

 " Moniloporidse : A New Family of Palaeozoic Cor- 

 als," by Amadeus W. Grabau ; " An Historical No- 

 tice of Ross's Rosy Gull, Rhodostethia rosea," by 

 John Murdoch ; " Localized Stages in Growth " and 

 " Ink and Paper for Museum Labels," by Robert T. 

 Jackson ; " On the Piscine Ancestors of the Amphib- 

 ians," by Theodore Gill; "Variation in the Shell 

 of Helix nemoralis in the Lexington, Va., Colony," 

 by James Lewis Howe ; " Hibernation, Transforma- 

 tion, and Growth of the Common Toad (Bufo lentigi- 

 nosus americanus) " and " The Transformation of 

 the Brook Lamprey (Lampera wilderi) and Para- 

 sitism among Lampreys," by Simon H. Gage ; 

 "Leidy's Genus Ouramoaba," by William L. Po- 

 teat ; " The Winter Food of the Chickadee," by 

 Clarence M. Weed ; " Notes on Life History of Pro- 

 toparce Carolina " and " The Life History of Schi- 

 zoneura lanigera" by William B. Alwood ; " Re- 

 marks on Aphorphora," by Edward S. Morse; 

 "The Phylogeny of the North American Euclei- 

 dae," by Harrison G. Dyar ; " On the Anatomy and 

 Physiology of the Spermatozoa of Inverteb'rated 

 Animals," by George W. Field ; and " Fauna of 

 Cold Spring Harbor," by Charles B. Davenport. 



G. Botany. This section was presided over by 

 Prof. William G. Farlow, who fills the chair of 

 Cryptogamic Botany in Harvard University, and 

 who addressed the section on " The Conception of 

 Species as affected by Recent Investigations in 

 Fungi." At the outset Prof. Farlow asked two 

 questions, " What do we mean by species ? " and 

 " Do they exist in Nature, or are they created by us 

 for our own convenience?" The best definition 

 that has been given of species is an old one, " A per- 

 ennial succession of like individuals." In "the 

 days of special creation, when every living thing 

 was believed to have been originally created in the 

 form in which it now exists, the permanence of 

 species was a thing not to be discussed or doubted. 

 Even in the early days of the association this idea 

 was still strong. Before 1859 creation was one vast 

 pudding in which the species had been placed by 

 an Almighty hand, and the naturalists pulled o'ut 

 plums and cried. 'See what a great naturalist 

 am T I have found a new species ! ' At this time, 

 not to believe in the immutability of species was to 

 make of one's self a scientific and almost a social 

 outcast. From among the classes of plants with 

 which he is most familiar, Prof. Farlow quoted the 

 results of environment and of artificial culture. 

 The rapidity of growth of the fungi makes this a 

 fertile field in which to conduct experiments, and 

 the results have been such that the speaker noted 

 that the botanists were now following the prevail- 

 ing business tendency of the age, and they are ask- 

 ing of the plants not so much " Who is your fa- 

 ther ?" as " Where did you come from, and what 

 can you do ? " The outcome of Prof. Farlow's ar- 

 gument was this : That the question whether spe- 



cies exists in Nature is one that should be left to 

 philosophy to discuss. The so-called species are 

 attempts to arrange groups of individual plants in 

 such a way that it may be easy to classify what is 

 known about them, and to make this knowledge 

 available. " The real purpose of these divisions 

 into species," he said, " is to map out the vegetable 

 kingdom in such a way that the horticulturist, the 

 forester, and the physiologist may be able to obtain 

 from the arrangement the facts needed by them in 

 their work. Our present knowledge may not be 

 sufficient to draw all the contours with accuracy; 

 new information may at any time cause our classi- 

 fication to be remodeled. If this idea is carried 

 out, we shall be able to lay up substantial material 

 for future workers, but we must not delude our- 

 selves with the hope of finding absolute, fixed 

 standards." 



The following-named papers were read and dis- 

 cussed before the section : " The Carposporic Type 

 of Reproduction of RhodophyceaV' by Bradley M. 

 Davis : " The Comparative Anatomy of the Pistils 

 of Apocarpous Families," by Ernst A. Bessey; 

 " Origin and Homologies of Blepharoplasts," by 

 Herbert J. Webber ; " The Blepharoplast in the 

 Sperm atogenesis of Marsilia," by Walter R. Shaw ; 

 " Observations on the Relative Moisture Content of 

 Fruit Trees in Winter and in Summer." by Charles 

 S. Crandall ; " Some Investigations bearing upon the 

 Symbiotic Mycoplasm Theory of Grain Rust," by 

 Henry L. Bolley ; " Half Shade and Vegetation," 

 " Starch Distribution as affected by Fungi," and 

 " Influence of a Wet Spring on Parasitic Fungi," by 

 Byron D. Halsted ; " Leaves of Red Astrachan 

 Apples immune from the Attack of Gymnosporan- 

 gium macropus" "The Work performed by the 

 Agricultural College toward a Botanical Survey of 

 Michigan," " Remarkable Decrease in the Size of 

 Leaves of Kalmia angustifolia, apparently due to 

 Reduction of Light," and " Some Examples illus- 

 trating Modes of Seed Dispersion," by William J. 

 Beal ; " The Effect of an Atmosphere of Ether upon 

 Seeds and Spores," by Charles 0. Townsend ; " Notes 

 on the Physiology of the Sporophyte of Certain 

 Mosses" and " The Toxic Action of a Certain Group 

 of Compounds," by Rodney H. True; "On the Va- 

 lidity of the Genera Senna and Chamaecrista," 

 " Species Characters among the Violets," and " Types 

 of Vegetation on the Keys of South Florida," by 

 C'harles L. Pollard ; " Potato as a Culture Medium, 

 with Some Notes on a Synthesized Substitute " and 

 " Some Little-used Culture Media which have proved 

 Valuable for Species Differentiation," by Erwin F. 

 Smith ; " Temperature and Transportation of Desert 

 Plants," by Daniel T. McDougal ; " The Brown-Spot 

 Disease of Apple Leaves, Phyllosticta pirina, and 

 Fungus Forms associated therewith," by William 

 B. Alwood ; " Notes on Some Diseases of Southern 

 Pines," by Hermann von Schrenk ; " The Botanic 

 Garden at Buitenzorg, Java," by David G. Fair- 

 child ; " Notes on the Strand Flora of Florida," by 

 Herbert J. W'ebber ; " Notes on the Relative Infre- 

 quency of Fungi upon the Trans-Missouri Plains 

 and the Adjacent Foothills of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains," by Charles E. Bessey ; " Fermentation with- 

 out Live Yeast Cells." by Katherine E. Golden and 

 Carleton G. Ferris ; " Deterrent Action of Salt in 

 Yeast Fermentation," by Katherine E. Golden; 

 " Fungus Gardening as practiced by the Termites 

 in West Africa and Java," by Orator F. Cook and 

 David G. Fairchild ; " The Biology of Cheese Ripen- 

 ing." by S. Moulton Babcock and H. L. Russell; 

 " On the Occurrence of a Yeast Form in the Life 

 Cycle of Sphfpropsis malorum Peck," by William 

 B. Alwood ; " Observations on Stewart's Sweet-Corn 

 Germ," by Erwin F. Smith ; " A Bacteriological 

 Study of Pear Blight," by Lillian Snyder ; " Life 



