480 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ DECEMBER 
ACTIVE STEPS are being taken by the Committee of Organization for the 
international botanical congress at Vienna in 1905 to provide for the discus- 
sion, among others, of the nomenclature question, to which the afternoons of 
the week, June 12-18, are to be devoted. A circular stating the present 
arrangements has just been distributed, which can be obtained by any who 
are interested and have not received it by addressing Dr. A. Zahlbruckner, 
Wien I, Burgring 7, Austria. : 
HoweEL.'s Flora of Northwest America, which has been in course of 
publication since 1897 is now completed. The author has struggled against 
many difficulties in producing this work, for which he himself has set the 
type. Those who have used the parts in the field have found it exceedingly 
useful. The collections of Mr. Howell, containing types of many species, 
have been acquired by the University of Oregon and he is to be employed in 
arranging them for use and safe keeping. 
THERE Is contained in Mature for November 5 an account of the botany 
at the Southport meeting of the British Association. One morning was devoted 
to a discussion of heredity, and another to the origin of monocotyledons by the 
Misses Sargant and Thomas, Professor Farmer gave a semi-popular lecture 
on stimulus and mechanism. Short abstracts of a number of papers are 
given. Several botanical excursions were made, especially to the neighbor- 
ing sand dunes. In the section for Geography there were several papers of 
botanical interest dealing with plant geography. 
THE Society for Horticultural Science was organized September 9, 1903; 
in the rooms of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in Boston on the 
occasion of the twenty-eighth biennial session of the American Pomological 
Society. The officers are: president, L. H. Bailey; vice-presidents, G. B. 
Brackett, T. V. Munson, E. J. Wickson; secretary-treasurer, S. A. Beach; 
assistant secretary, V. A. Clark ; executive committee, the president, ex offic 10, 
L. C. Corbett (chairman), W. R. Lazenby, J. C. Whitten, F. A. Waugh. The 
object of the society is the strengthening of horticultural investigation and 
teaching on its scientific side and the aiding in the development of horticulture 
as ascience. The society is especially designed to meet the professional and 
technical requirements of horticultural investigators and teachers. The field 
of the society is clearly defined and heretofore unoccupied. It lies between 
that of the popular societies on the one hand and that of the societies for 
general science on the other, and connects them. The programs are to 
include, besides papers on original investigations, summary presentation of 
scientific knowledge on special horticultural topics. Some one topic of gen- 
eral and immediate interest is to be made the central feature of each program 
and is to be announced in advance. The first meeting with a scientific pro- 
gram will be held at St. Louis in Convocation Week, December 28—January 
2 next. 
