Apbil 16, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



639 



most heartily passed and was responded to by 

 Professor W. B. Clark in behalf of the Balti- 

 moreans concerned. 



The society adjourned shortly before 5:00 P.M., 

 on Thursday, December 31. 



The following officers were elected by the so- 

 ciety for the year 1909: 



President — Grove K. Gilbert, Washington, D. C. 



First Vice-President — Frank D. Adams, Mon- 

 treal, Canada. 



Second Vice-President — John M. Clarke, Albany, 

 N. Y. 



Secretary — Edmund Otis Hovey, New York City. 



Treasurer — William Bullock Clark, Baltimore, 

 Md. 



Editor — Joseph Stanley-Brown, Cold Spring 

 Harbor, N. Y. 



Librarian — H. P. Cushing, Cleveland, Ohio. 



Councilors (1909-1911) — George Otis Smith, 

 Washington, D. C, and Henry S. Washington, 

 Locust, N. J. 



The following were elected as fellows of the 

 society: Elliot Blackwelder, Madison, Wis.; Will- 

 iam Phipps Blake, Tucson, Ariz.; Charles Wilson 

 Brown, Providence, K. I.; Frank Carney, Gran- 

 ville, Ohio; Edward Salisbury Dana, New Haven, 

 Conn.; Cassius Asa Fisher, Washington, D. C. ; 

 Albert Johannsen, Washington, D. C; Geo. Fred- 

 erick Kay, Iowa City, Iowa; Henry Landes, 

 Seattle, Wash.; Gteorge Burr Eiehardson, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. ; Joaquim Candido da Costa Sena, 

 Ouro Preto, Minas, Brazil; Earle Sloan, Charles- 

 ton, S. C. ; George Willis Stose, Washington, 

 D. C. ; Charles Kephart Swartz, Baltimore, Md. 



One hundred thirty-five fellows were in attend- 

 ance, making this second Baltimore meeting the 

 largest in the history of the society. The coimcil 

 voted to hold the next winter meeting in Boston 

 and Cambridge. 



Edmund Otis Hovet, 



Secretary 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON 



The 455th meeting was held February 20, 1909, 

 with President Palmer in the chair. Dr. M. W. 

 Lyon, Jr., exhibited the skins of two weasels from 

 the vicinity of Washington, D. C. One was taken 

 in the middle of the relatively mild winter of 

 1906-7 and showed the light brown pelage of long 

 fur, characteristic of the winter pelage of weasels 

 in this latitude. The other was taken in the 

 latter part of March, 1904, and was mainly in the 

 white winter pelage characteristic of weasels in 

 higher latitudes. The middle line of the back 



showed the dark brown shorter summer pelage 

 coming in. The winter of 1903-4 was colder than 

 that of 1906-7. Whether that had anything to do 

 with causing a white pelage instead of a light 

 brown one could not be said. 



The following communications were presented: 

 Some Japanese Entomologists and their Labora- 

 tories, with Notes on the Introduction of Para- 

 sites of the Gypsy Moth: L. O. Howaed. 

 Dr. Howard spoke of some Japanese entomolo- 

 gists and their laboratories, and of the recent 

 work in importing parasites of the gypsy moth 

 and the brown-tail Hioth. He described some of 

 the recent innovations in the large-scale experi- 

 ment which has been carried on for three years 

 by the Bureau of Entomology of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in the importation of para- 

 sites from Europe and from Japan, most of which 

 have been mentioned in the annual report of the 

 Chief of the Bureau of Entomology for 1908. He 

 spoke especially of a trip to Japan taken during 

 the summer of 1908 by Professor Trevor Kincaid, 

 of the University of Washington (Seattle), as an 

 agent of the bureau, to collect and send to the 

 United States the Japanese parasites of the gypsy 

 moth. This expedition was highly successful, and 

 Mr. Kincaid met with the most gracious courtesy 

 and the most hearty cooperation on the part of 

 the Japanese entomologists. The talk was illus- 

 trated by lantern slides showing groups of Jap- 

 anese entpmologists at different agricultural col- 

 leges and experiment stations, as well as at pri- 

 vate stations, and also of the experiment station 

 buildings and laboratories. 



Some Remarkable Phenomena Occurring in the 

 Breeding of Varieties of Dianthus: J. B. 



NOBTON. 



Since 1904 several hundred seedling carnations 

 have been grown each year by Mr. E. M. Byrnes, 

 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, in the green- 

 houses of the Department of Agriculture. From 

 the notes and records kept of these seedlings by 

 the speaker, it was found that about 23 per cent, 

 of the seedlings were typical single flowered, the 

 remainder being double. The double flowers could 

 be divided into two groups — standard doubles, 

 i. e., like the parent varieties, and full doubles, 

 or " bull-heads " ; the latter class averaging about 

 25 per cent, of the total number of seedlings. The 

 close agreement of these percentages was that of 

 a second generation of a Mendelian hybrid, which 

 led to the prediction that the commercial carna- 

 tion was a hybrid type and that the single and 

 bull-head types were the extracted pure parent 



