14 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



vascular cryptogams and bringing into view more vividly than 

 ever the marvellous continuity of the present and the past. 



The geologists continue to interest the world in mountain- 

 building on the one hand, and plain-building on the other; and 

 drift sheetsfurnish this year, as last, the staple topic of discus- 

 sion in all learned societies. And here again, the progress of 

 science is marked, not so much by any special discovery, as by 

 the continued accumulation of data, the gathering of new facts 

 which bring into clearer and yet more vivid light the surpris- 

 ing alternations of climate and surface-level which have marked 

 the recent history of the earth. Paleontology is for the present 

 laid aside. Even Dubois^ Pithecanthropus from Java has failed 

 to excite much interest, chiefly because that ancient ancestor 

 of earth's noblemen was less careful than he should have been 

 in reference to the final disposition of his bones, and has left 

 us, his far-off children, quite uncertain as to the particular ter- 

 rene or horizon in which so long ago he laid him down to sleep 

 with the patriarchs of the infant world. In geology, as in biol- 

 ogy, the progress of science is continuous. The problems of 

 earth-knowledge Ercl-kunde are so vast that single years avail 

 us not; decades and half-centuries are insufficient even to set 

 such problems forth, to give adequate horizon, perspective; or 

 even to accustom us, who are but sons of time, to vistas that 

 open into past infinity. In fact the general progress of the 

 science of the world seems to me to-day to lie in that quiet con- 

 fidence with which the men of science approach their work, and 

 the perfect equanimity with which on all sides truth receives 

 a welcome hearing. 



Turn we now to our own little corner of the planet, given 

 over by fate for tillage to members of this academy, we may 

 find gratifying evidence of progressive research, notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that we are perhaps all employed during most of 

 the year in other and routine work. In natural history the 

 year has brought forth much of permanent value in the way of 

 original investigation and report. 



Aside from pax)ers published in the proceedings of our last 

 meeting, I may mention here Mr. Fink's papers on the Minne- 

 sota lichens, Mr. Pammel's on the grasses and forage plants of 

 Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado; Mr. Shimek's account of the 

 ferns of Nicaragua. Mr. Nutting has in press a monograph of 

 the hydroids of the Atlantic coast and Mr. Osborn's work on 

 "Insects Affecting Domestic Animals" has this year appeared in 



