. Report of the Secretary for 1915 
The year has been one of considerable activity in the 
Society. Four meetings have been held—at Worcester, 
Mass., Rainbow, Conn., Syracuse, N. Y., and Berkeley, 
Cal. Three of these have already been reported in the 
JournaL. The fourth, at Rainbow, was an informal 
one-day field meeting in late June, attended by Messrs. 
Bissell, Winslow, and Weatherby from among the officers 
and by about twenty nature-lovers from the vicinity of 
Hartford. Under the guidance of Mr. Bissell and Mr. 
H. C. Bigelow, the day was agreeably spent in exploring 
a tract of woodland remarkable for the number of forms 
and hybrids of the shield ferns which grew in it. Some 
of the rarer Botrychiums were also found. 
During the year one member, Dr. Charles E. Bessey, 
has died. Six have resigned: four, after every possible 
effort to reclaim them, have been regretfully dropped 
for non-payment of dues. 40 new members have been 
received of whom one, Mr. Carl Christensen, is an hon- 
orary, and one, Mr. Seth Bunker Capp, a life member 
—in each case, the first of his class. The total number 
of members, not including the single honorary one, is 
now (December 31, 1915) 255, the largest in the history 
of the Society. But it is not enough. Probably it is @ 
comparatively small proportion of the Americans who 
are interested, more or less, in ferns; and the Society 
should not be satisfied, nor can it reach its full useful- 
ness, until it has them all. 
The annual election brought out the largest vote yet 
cast—a gratifying indication of active interest on the 
part of the members. Two amendments to the Consti- 
tution were adopted, the text of which follows: 
“Add to Article III the following: 
Section 5, Any eligible i€ person may become a life member on ap 
subject to no dues or assessments. All euch for hall be held and invested 
