Xxxil Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 
The President reported that after a contribution of 
$2,500 and a transfer from the current treasury account 
of $1,000 had last year raised the Academy endowment 
to $6,500, which, by the further gift of Mr. John Holmes, 
had been increased to $7,000, a circular letter sent to all 
members of the Academy had brought in the further sum 
of $500 contributed by Messrs. Gustav Baumgarten, M. 8S. 
Brennan, D. I. Bushnell, E. C. Dameron, W. E. Fischel, 
George Lang, Jr., E. H. Larkin, Edward Mallinckrodt, 
Jr., Frank Mesker, J. 8. Thurman and T. D. Witt— 
which had been added to the endowment from time to 
time as received. 
It was further reported that under authorization voted 
by the Academy in the early part of this year, the Presi- 
dent and Treasurer had recently transferred to the Saint 
Louis Union Trust Company this sum of $7,500, to which 
a few members of the Academy, Messrs. W. K. Bixby, 
George O. Carpenter, Peyton Carr, Benjamin Gratz, Ed- 
ward Mallinckrodt, D. 8. H. Smith and William Trelease, 
and Mrs. Eliza McMillan, had added a like sum,—the 
total of $15,000, under the agreement sanctioned by the 
Academy, to be held in trust for a period of twenty-five 
years and the proceeds of its investment collected and 
turned over to the Academy for its current use. 
Calling attention to the rules concerning the election 
of patrons, the President stated that among these con- 
tributors to the Academy’s endowment (in addition to 
Mrs. McMillan, who is already a patron of the Academy), 
Mr. W. K. Bixby and Mr. Edward Mallinckrodt had 
given over $1,000 each, and recommended that these gen- 
tlemen be elected patrons of the Academy. 
Dr. William Trelease gave an illustrated account of 
“<The Geographical Distribution of Agave in the West 
Indies and its Probable Mode of Introduction.’’ 
Three main types of Agave are recognized in the West Indies; 
one confined to the southwestern Cuban region, another to the Inaguas, 
and the third ranging through the entire archipelago. Subtypes of the 
latter are limited respectively to the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, 
the Caribbees, and the Leeward Islands and the adjoining Venezuelan 
coast. Within these groups specific differentiation is observable so 
that each island isolated by a 100-fathom channel has its endemic 
