136 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [FEBRUARY 
Jones, Henry Kremer, F. E. Lloyd, D. T. MacDougal, Conway Mac- 
Millan, G. T. Moore, Adeline F. Schively, Hermann von Schrenk, Julia 
W. Snow. The most important business of general interest was the 
appointment of a committee to endeavor to secure better reviews of 
current botanical literature, as referred to below. 
The address of the president, upon Current problems in plant cytol- 
ogy, will probably be published in full later. The following papers 
were read. In each case the synopses are made by the secretary from 
longer abstracts furnished by the authors, the limits of space in the 
GAZETTE preventing the publication of the abstracts in full. 
G. E. STONE: Geotropic experiments. 
The author has attempted to settle the old question as to the angle 
at which gravity acts most strongly on a geotropically sensitive organ- 
ism. Grass nodes and roots of Vicia faba were used, and experiments 
with dynamometers, with averages of cut plants in moist sand at differ- 
ent angles, and with results of after effect of stimulation were employed. 
All these experiments gave similar results, namely, that the horizontal 
position is that of greatest geotropic excitability, and that the relation- 
ship in this respect between nodes at oblique angles and those hori- 
zontal is proportional to the cosines of their angles. 
D.S. JoHNson: The embryo sac of Saururus cernuus. 
The primary archesporial cell divides into an upper tapetal cell, 
and a definitive archesporial cell, which forms three potential macro- 
spores, the lower becoming functional and developing the usual seven- 
nucleate embryo sac, which becomes flask-shaped. ‘The antipodals 
soon become indistinguishable, and endosperm forms in the neck of 
the flask before any change appears in the egg. In the ripe seed only 
the tip of the large nucellus has been used up in formation of endo- 
sperm, while the lower part of the embryo sac is still without endo- 
sperm or nuclei. 
W. G. Fartow: Zhe best way of securing a good review of curr = 
botanical literature. 
The substance of this address has already appeared in the GaZzETIFE 
for January. As a result of the address, and of discussion upon it, 4 
committee, consisting of Messrs. Farlow, MacDougal, and yon 
Schrenk, was appointed to endeavor to secure some improvement in 
the reviews of current botanical literature. The committee decided to 
