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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1143 



understand the organism as it actually lives in na- 

 ture. Not until this has been accomplished may it 

 be truly claimed that an investigation in marine 

 biology has been carried to its logical termination. 

 This same conception, of course, applies to land 

 organisms and fresh-water organisms; to moun- 

 tain biology, desert biology, lake biology, river 

 biology, etc. It is that conception which insists 

 that no organism can be fully understood, in its 

 structure and function quite as much as in its 

 distribution and behavior, apart from its natural 

 abode. 

 Variations of Picris echioides : B. E. Gates. 



Picris echioides is a European plant introduced 

 into California. In a small colony of this compos- 

 ite at Berkeley several marked variations were 

 observed. The most interesting of these were two 

 individuals in which all the florets of the heads 

 were ' ' quilled ' ' or tubular, instead of all being 

 flat and ray-like, as in the ordinary form. In the 

 normal form the heads open early in the morning, 

 but on bright days they are closed again by noon, 

 while in the quilled variation the heads remain 

 open several hours longer and never completely 

 close. Hence there is a marked difference in the 

 physiological reactions of the two forms. Another 

 variation is in the color of the rays, which are 

 usually dark yellow; but occasional plants occur 

 in which all the rays are pale lemon yellow. 

 Again, the stems are usually green, but occasion- 

 ally reddish throughout. There are also great dif- 

 ferences in size, which are very probably genetic in 

 nature. The shortest plants are slender and only 

 18 inches high; while the tallest are very stout, 

 differ in their branching, have much larger leaves 

 and reach nearly 5 feet in height. Other differ- 

 ences can also be observed, indicating that a con- 

 siderable number of genetic variations exist in 

 this interbreeding population. It is not known 

 whether similar variations occur in this species in 

 its natural European home. 



Forrest Shreve, 

 Secretary-Treasurer 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY 

 The one hundred and eighty-sixth regular meet- 

 ing of the American Mathematical Society was 

 held at Columbia University on Saturday, October 

 28, extending through the usual morning and 

 afternoon sessions. The attendance included 

 thirty-nine members. President E. W. Brown 

 occupied the chair. The council announced the 

 election of the following persons to membership in 



the society: Mr. A. C. Bose, Calcutta, India; Pro- 

 fessor L. C. Emmons, Michigan Agricultural Col- 

 lege; Professor A. M. Harding, University of Ar- 

 kansas; Dr. W. L. Hart, Harvard University; Dr. 

 J. E. Musselman, University of Illinois; Mr. S. Z. 

 Eothsehild, Immediate Benefit Life Insurance 

 Company, Baltimore, Md.; Professor Pauline 

 Sperry, Smith College. Six applications for mem- 

 bership were received. 



Committees were appointed to audit the treas- 

 urer's accounts and to arrange for the annual 

 meeting in December and the summer meeting of 

 1917. 



The following papers were read at the October 

 meeting : 



Mrs. J. E. Eoe: " Interf unctional expressibility 

 problems of symmetric functions. ' ' 



E. D. Eoe, Jr. : "A geometric representation. ' ' 



E. D. Eoe, Jr.: "Studies of the Kreisteilungs- 

 gleichung and related questions. ' ' 



E. D. Eoe, Jr.: "The irreducible factors of 



X" + xn-l -|- x tl-2 -\- ... + 1. " 



H. B. Mitchell: "On the imaginary roots of a 

 polynomial and the real roots of its derivative." 



J. H. Weaver: "Some properties of parabolas 

 generated by straight lines and circles. ' ' 



P. N. Cole: "Complete census of the triad sys- 

 tems in fifteen letters. ' ' 



O. E. Glenn: "Translation surfaces associated 

 with line congruences. ' ' 



O. E. Glenn: "Methods in the invariant theory 

 of special groups, based on finite expansions of 

 forms. ' ' 



E. L. Moore: "A theorem concerning continuous 

 curves. ' ' 



J. E. Kline : ' ' The converse of the theorem con- 

 cerning the division of a plane by an open curve." 



H. S. Vandiver: "Note on the distribution of 

 quadratic and higher power residues. ' ' 



H. S. Vandiver: "The generalized Lagrange in- 

 determinate congruence for a composite ideal 

 modulus. ' ' 



The annual meeting of the society will be held at 

 Columbia University on Wednesday and Thursday, 

 December 27-28. At this meeting President Brown 

 will deliver his retiring address, on "The relation 

 of mathematics to the natural sciences." A reg- 

 ular meeting of the society will also be held in 

 Chicago December 22-23. The San Francisco Sec- 

 tion will meet at the University of California on 

 Saturday, November 25. The Southwestern Sec- 

 tion will meet at the University of Kansas on 

 Saturday, December 2. E. N. Cole, 



