1900 ] BRIEFER ARTICLES 137 
communicate to the editors of the Botanisches Centralblatt, through the 
secretary, the opinions of the society upon this subject. 
H. S. Conarp: Fasciation in the sweet potato. (By invitation.) 
The author pointed out that fasciations are very common in sweet- 
potato plants, particularly ‘those from rich soil, and that of such plants 
one half to one per cent. are ring-fasciated. The tubular parts, which 
may be two or three feet long, bear leaves and adventitious roots 
within, and show two bundle systems, an outer and an inner, which 
are alike except that the latter faces the tube cavity. They are entirely 
separate, but merge upward into a ring-shaped meristem, and down- 
ward the inner system gradually disappears below the end of the tube. 
F.C. Stewart: Leaf scorch of the sugar beet. 
This paper has since been published in the New York Agricultural 
Experiment Station Bulletin no. 162. Proofs were given that a sudden 
blackening and death of the foliage of sugar beets in central New York 
in August 1899 was due not to parasitic organisms but to scorching 
through excessive transpiration. 
F, Grace Smitu: Distribution of red color in vegetative parts in the 
New England flora. (By invitation.) 
The author discussed the various theories hitherto advanced to 
explain the presence of red color in vegetative parts of plants, to test 
which she has observed the occurrence of red in the New England 
flora, classifying its distribution according to the part in which the 
color occurs, and the relationship of the red organ to outside condi- 
_ tions, and tabulating the results in percentages. In general they show 
that red occurs preponderantly in conducting parts, and in those 
exposed to light and dryness, but the results do not agree with any of 
the current theories; whence the conclusion is drawn that the meaning 
of the color must be different in different cases, or else it is determined 
by some factor to which we as yet have no clue. 
D. P. PeNnHALLow: Zhe morphology of certain plants from the Devonian 
of Europe and America. 
The author traced the history of the important fossil Parkia dect- 
piens, which was first proven to be of plant origin by Dawson and Pen- 
hallow in 1891. Remains since discovered have shown that it possesses 
macro- and microsporangia, and that it is closely related to Mar- 
silia and Pilularia. Another fossil of much importance is Dawson’s 
