July 14, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



71 



The Sand Flora of Eastern Iowa: B. Shimek. 



The sandy areas in Muscatine and Louisa coun- 

 ties are chiefly discussed. The number of species 

 peculiar to the sands of this region is small, the 

 greater part of the flora being that of the prairies. 

 Notes on seasonal succession on these areas are in- 

 eluded. 



The White Waterlily of Iowa: Henry S. Conrad. 

 The paper describes the variations of Nymphcea 

 odorata, and gives in parallel columns the distinc- 

 tions between this species and Nymphwa tuberosa. 

 It questions the identification of all the waterlilies 

 from the Great Lake region and the Central 

 States, and asks for fuller study to determine the 

 taxonomie value and the range of these forms. 



A Section of Upper Sonoran Flora in Northern 



Oregon: Morton E. Peck. 



The paper gives first a brief account of. the cli- 

 matic conditions, topography, etc., in the neighbor- 

 hood of Umatilla, Oregon. The several plant as- 

 sociations, with the areas they cover, are next de- 

 scribed. The discussion closes with a complete 

 annotated list of the species of seed plants known 

 to inhabit the area under consideration. 



James H. Lees, 



Secretary 



Des Moines, Ia. 



THE KENTUCKY ACADEMY OF 

 SCIENCE 



The Kentucky Academy of Science held its third 

 annual meeting at Lexington, in the lecture room 

 of the physics department, University of Ken- 

 tucky, May 6, 1916, President N. P. Smith in the 

 chair. 



After a business session at which a number of 

 new members were elected, and among other things 

 a resolution was passed favoring the adoption of 

 the bill now before Congress requiring the use of 

 the Centigrade thermometer scale in government 

 publications (H. R. 528), the following program 

 was carried out: 



President's Address — Problems and Progress of 

 Twentieth-century Physics: N. P. Smith. 

 Twentieth-century physics had its birth in the 

 year 1895, when Roentgen discovered the new 

 form of radiation known as X-rays. There fol- 

 lowed rapidly after this a succession of impor- 

 tant discoveries chiefly connected with radio-activ- 

 ity. Prom the many new facts discovered there 

 has gradually developed the electronic theory of 

 matter and electricity. It has been definitely es- 



tablished that every electric charge is made up of 

 an exact number of elementary electric charges or 

 atoms of electricity. The magnitude of this ele- 

 mentary electric charge has been determined with 

 great accuracy. Prom the value of this elemen- 

 tary charge other important physical constants can 

 be accurately determined, among them the mass of 

 an electron, and the masses of different atoms. It 

 has been shown that every electric current is a 

 convection current; the inertia of matter is prob- 

 ably entirely due to its electrical nature and is 

 analogous to self-induction. It has been shown 

 that X-rays are of the same character as light, 

 but with a wave-length about one-ten-thousandth 

 part as great. This has been established by the use 

 of crystals as a diffraction grating. A reasonable 

 theory of the structure of the atoms of the dif- 

 ferent elements has been established which is in 

 close agreement with observed facts. The electro- 

 magnetic theory, as worked out by Maxwell, is in- 

 complete and requires important modification to 

 account for the facts of radiation. On the whole, 

 remarkable progress has been made in the develop- 

 ment of physical theory. 



Astronomy Applied in Archeological and Historical 



Research: Henry Meier. 



The author had collected a large number of 

 events and circumstances mentioned in works on 

 ancient history and given in ancient Greek or Ro- 

 man classics, which events referred to a probable 

 total eclipse of the sun or moon taking place about 

 the time given and visible in the regions referred 

 to. He then calculated the times of all possible 

 eclipses for the time and place of each event and 

 having thus established accurately 'the year, month 

 and day of the event given by history he was en- 

 abled to determine with certainty other historic 

 dates related to the event. 



Likewise from the accurately measured orienta- 

 tions of certain ancient temples in Upper Egypt 

 dedicated either to the sun or to a well-known star, 

 he determined, based upon the facts that the ob- 

 liquity of the sun 's ecliptic is a variable quantity 

 and that the declinations of fixed stars change 

 from year to year, the probable time of construc- 

 tion of each temple, and thus he was able to fix 

 chronologically the events related through inscrip- 

 tions in each temple. 



Some Historic Fish Remains: Arthur M. Miller. 

 When the writer took charge of the department of 

 geology, State College, in 1892, he found stored in 

 the basement of the old Chemistry Building, some 

 interesting fossil fish remains. He later found that 



