868 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 1B% 



carpels, fruit and tissues. Dr. Rusby referred 

 to tbie separation of Saururus from the Piper- 

 acese, and to Dr. Henry's investigations now 

 in progress upon a Saururus in China. 



3. The nest feature of the evening was the 

 exhibition, by Dr. Britton, of a large and inter- 

 esting set of blue prints from tracings made 

 from Mexican plants. The originals were sent 

 by Mocino and Sesse to M. Alphonse de Can- 

 dolle at Geneva, but these and the accompany- 

 ing text remained unpublished. Recently the 

 text has been issued by the Mexican Natural 

 History Society. The elder de Candolle fur- 

 nished a series of tracings to Dr. Gray, from 

 which the blue prints exhibited have been made 

 at the instance of Dr. J. N. Rose, of Washing- 

 ton, D. C. An index and preface to the blue- 

 prints has been supplied by M. Casimir de Can- 

 dolle. 



4. The subject next following was that of 

 those members of the Convolvulacese which 

 form large fleshy roots, introduced by Dr. 

 Rusby, who exhibited specimens of the roots of 

 Ipomcea pandurata sent by Mr. C. R. Beadle, 

 of Biltmore, N. C. Three fusiform roots reached 

 from 3 to 4J feet long, 3 to 5 inches thick, and 

 also developed at least one foot of slender root 

 above, below the surface of the ground. One 

 of these was forked, suggesting its name of 

 ' Man in-the-Ground.' Medicinally it is used as 

 a purgative. 



Dr. Rydberg referred to the thicker, shorter 

 root of Ipomoea leptophylla. which has a sweet 

 taste, and frequents hillsides, where its roots 

 serve as a storehouse for moisture as well as for 

 starch. 



Dr. Rusby suggested that the resinous matter 

 found in these roots may be primarily a waste 

 product, but is perhaps useful to the plant as a 

 means of preventing its being eaten by enemies. 



5. The next communication was from Mrs. 

 E. G. Britton, on 'A Hybrid Moss.' Mrs. 

 Britton exhibited Contribution No. 72 from the 

 Herbarium of Columbia reprinted from the 

 Bulletin for February, 1895, showing plate 231 

 to illustrate a hybrid of Aphanorhegma serratum 

 collected by Drummond near St. Louis, Mis- 

 souri, in 1841, and stated that the same hybrid 

 had been rediscovered by Mr. D. A. Burnett on 

 December 12, 1896, near Bradford, Pennsyl- 



vania, along the Erie Railroad, on a heap of 

 ashes left by burning old ties, and that it was 

 associated with Bryum argenteum and Funaria 

 hygrometrica. As in the case of Drummond' s- 

 specimens, the antheridial parent is unknown, 

 but was probably Physcomitrium turbinatum; it 

 scarcely seems possible that it could have been 

 Funaria. The specimens agree in every way 

 and show various degrees of heredity from each 

 parent. On most of the plants typical im- 

 mersed capsules of Aphanorhegma occur together 

 with either one exserted, long-pedicelled cap- 

 sule of Physcomitrium or with two smaller im- 

 mersed capsules more closely related to Phys- 

 comitrium than to Aphanorhegma. As in Drum- 

 mond's specimens, the apical lid with a clearly 

 differentiated border, the shallow spore-sac, and 

 especially the different cell-structure of the 

 walls and the less developed spores, clearly dis- 

 tinguish the hybrid sporophytes from typical 

 Aphanorhegma. 



Discussion followed regarding hybrid ferns 

 and respecting Asplenium ebeneum and A. ebe- 

 noides. In answer to questions by Dr. Rusby, 

 Dr. Underwood said that where both species 

 grow together in North Carolina he finds A. 

 ebenoides growing beneath cliffs, but A. ebeneum 

 in different situations about the edges of bowl- 

 ders, while the associated fern Camptosorus in- 

 habits only the flat tops of the rocks. 



Edwaed S. Burgess, 



Secretary. 



NEW BOOKS. 



The Study of Man. Alfeed C. Haddon. New 

 York, G. P. Putnam's Sons ; London, Bliss, 

 Sands & Co. 1898. Pp. xxv -|- 410. $2.00. 



Syllabus on Vertebrata. Edward D. Cope. 

 With an introduction by Henry F. Osborn. 

 Philadelphia, Published for the University 

 of Pennsylvania. 1898. Pp. xxxv -|- 135. 



Hand-Book of Nature Study. D. Lange. New 

 York and London, The Macmillan Com- 

 pany. 1898. Pp. XV + 329. $1.00. 



Nature Study in Elementary Schools. Reader : 

 Myths, Stories, Poems. Mrs. Lucy Langdon 

 Williams Wilson. New York and London, 

 The Macmillan Company. 1898. Pp. 181. 

 35 cents. 



