614 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 955 



specific name. I therefore take this oppor- 

 tunity of giving a few definite characteriza- 

 tions. A lengthy and detailed description 

 will be issued later. 



Juglans quercifolia, n. sp. The tree has a 

 habit of growth of a Quercus, and in second 

 generation forms it is more or less evergreen, 

 that is the leaves fall late in the season and 

 develop early in the spring. The leaves are 

 trifoliate or unifoliate and the leaflets are 

 circular and very distinct from those of the 

 mother, Juglans californica. When there are 

 three leaflets the terminal one is usually the 

 larger. The tree bears nuts similar to those 

 of the mother. The limbs have a small pith 

 cavity which is closely septate. The catkins 

 frequently appear on last year's wood in pairs 

 and are closely approximate, the posterior is 

 usually the shortest at a given date. The 

 color of the new foliage is a darker green 

 than is that of the mother. 



Newton B. Pierce 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A SPECIAL meeting of the society was held in 

 room 43 of the new building of the National 

 Museum at 4:30 p.m., April 1, 1913, the presi- 

 dent, Mr. Stetson, in the chair. 



Dr. J. H. Gore, who has recently returned from 

 a visit to the King of Siam, read a paper on 

 ' ' Siamese Life and Industries, ' ' profusely illus- 

 trated by lantern slides. The former included fine 

 basketry, bronze vessels, silver vessels, matting, 

 textile fabrics of silk and other material and 

 hammered silver ware of admirable workmanship, 

 the method of production being to fiill a silver 

 vessel with sand and hammer in the surface from 

 the outside to form the ground, leaving the deco- 

 rative human figures in series (beside other orna- 

 ments) in high relief. Usually the figures repre- 

 sent some mythological story. Dr. Gore's lantern- 

 slide pictures of Siam included many farm-scenes, 

 illustrations of games, festivities and elephant- 

 capturing and views of the city of Bangkok, the 

 aquatic human life of its rivers and canals, the 

 palace, imperial crematories and temples, one of 

 the latter being an exceedingly beautiful rock 

 cavern temple of great renown. 



Dr. Gore explained that the teak-wood forests 



and rice culture are among the chief resources of 

 the country, most of the ship-decks of the world 

 being supplied from the former, now managed by 

 an expert forester, while the export of rice is very 

 great, about seventy rice mills of modern equip- 

 ment being operated in Bangkok, beside, a large 

 amount of similar work done by more primitive 

 methods and appliances throughout the country. 

 The soil is of the highest fertility and unequaled 

 depth in the main valley of the kingdom. There 

 are about eighty miles of good roads around 

 Bangkok and the streets of the city are well made, 

 modern street-car lines running on some of them: 

 but the remainder of the country is practically 

 without roads. 



The late king was notable for divers modern 

 and enlightened reforms, such as freeing slaves, 

 relinquishing the royal ownership in the land in 

 the favor of those who had been long in occupancy 

 and use of it, waiving the exemption of the royal 

 lands from taxation and compiling and publishing 

 an edition of the Buddhist scriptures, which he 

 supplied to the libraries of the world. 



The inhabitants of Cambodia, he said, are 

 nearly of the same stock of the Siamese, but 

 regarded as inferior by the latter people, whose 

 language is nearly akin to the Sanscrit. The 

 human images before their temples are not idols, 

 but for ornament. There is a flame-like upward 

 aspiring tendency in their decorative work. No 

 magical or religious importance is attached to 

 white elephants, so called, which are albinoes, 

 white only in patches; but these are regarded as 

 rarities and curiosities and as such are given to 

 the king. 



W. H. Babcock, 



Secretary 



PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY OP VIRGINIA 

 MATHEMATICAL AND SCIENTIPIC SECTION 



The sixth meeting of the session of 1912-13 

 of the Mathematical and Scientific Section was 

 held March 17. 



Professor W. H. Echols read a paper entitled 

 ' ' On the Root of a Monogenic Function inside a 

 Closed Contour along which the Modulus is Con- 

 stant. ' ' 



Professor Wm. A. Kepner read a paper on 

 "The Food Reactions of Amoeba Proteus," by 

 Mr. Wm. H. Taliaferro and himself. 



Wm. a. Kepner, 



Secretary 



University op Virginia 



