AMERICAN FERN Socrety 129 
at dinner, can find out place and hour by telephoning 
the Garden—Prospect 6173—during the afternoon. 
The evening session will be at 8 P. M. Details of the 
program are not yet worked out; but there will be an 
exhibit of interesting specimens, brief talks by various 
members and opportunity for discussion. One of the 
chief objects of such meetings is to give members an 
opportunity to meet one another; and it is planned to 
have this one informal throughout, with plenty of chance 
for everyone to talk with others present, exchange 
notes, ask questions and get acquainted. Come and 
bring your friends—for the meeting will be open to all 
who are interested in ferns, whether they are members 
of the Society or not. 
Members are urged to send in for exhibit mounted 
specimens of interesting ferns and fern allies. These 
would be sent to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., in time to arrive before December 29th. 
Packages should be marked “For the American Fern 
Society.” Exhibits will be well cared for and returned 
immediately after the meeting. 
Further notice will probably be sent to members 
living within easy reach of New York; and to all others 
who will ask the Secretary for it. 
Rev. James A. Bates, one of the few remaining charter 
members of the Society and once its president, died at 
his home in South Royalston, Mass., on September 3, 
1916. An account of his life will appear in the next 
number of the JoURNAL. 
Mr. James A. Laird died at Rochester, N. Y., on July 
17, 1916, aged 44. He was born at Trenton, Ontario. 
For the past twenty years he had lived at Rochester, 
and for all that period had been in the employ of the 
Stecher Lithographic Company. Much of his spare 
