796 
Present indications are that practically all of 
the fine wire is being urged in a direction opposite 
to that of the corpuscular flow. There must, how- 
ever, be an end effect at the negative terminal of 
the wire which urges the wire in the opposite 
direction. 
Av the meeting of the academy held Monday 
evening, April 15, 1912, Professor A. S. Langsdorf, 
of Washington University, addressed the Academy 
on ‘‘Transient Electrical Phenomena,’’ Dr. Chas. 
H. Turner gave an illustrated account of ‘‘ Results 
of Recent Experiments on the Homing of Ants,’’ 
Dr. Arthur E. Bostwick read a paper on ‘‘ Atomic 
Theories of Energy’’ and Professor Wm. H. 
Roever, of Washington University, exhibited and 
explained ‘‘A Mechanism for Illustrating Lines 
of Force.’’ 
GrorcE T. Moore, 
Corresponding Secretary 
THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 
THE meeting of January 31 was held in the 
Museum Building of the New York Botanical Gar- 
den, Vice-president Barnhart presiding. Twenty- 
five persons were present. The minutes of the 
meetings of November 29, 1911, and January 9, 
1912, were read and approved. Dr. Marshall A. 
Howe, chairman of the auditing committee, re- 
ported that the committee had examined the books 
of the treasurer and found them to be correct. 
The report of the budget committee was presented 
and approved. 
The announced scientific program consisted of 
the reading of papers on ‘‘Sir Joseph Dalton 
Hooker: His Life and Works,’’ by Dr. N. L. 
Britton and Dr. J. H. Barnhart. Dr. Britton’s 
paper related chiefly to the life of this distin- 
guished botanist, and his publications relating to 
botany were discussed by Dr. Barnhart. As Sir 
Joseph Hooker was an honorary member of the 
Torrey Club, Dr. Barnhart took this occasion to 
bring before the club the constitutional provisions 
relating to honorary membership and read the list 
of all persons who have been elected to honorary 
membership. 
Mr. Fred J. Seaver spoke briefly on the viability 
of the spores in Pyronema. While Pyronema has 
been made the subject of numerous research papers 
and is figured and treated in most of the recent 
text-books of general botany, it still remains an 
unknown plant to most botanists, except to the 
few who have done critical work with it. There is 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 907 
no reason for it being so, for the fungus is fairly 
common and is easily grown, as has already been 
shown in previously published papers. In a recent 
experiment the speaker was able to show that the 
spores of this fungus which had been kept nearly 
three years in the herbarium germinated readily 
in hanging-drop culture. This last point should 
be of general interest to teachers of botany, since 
it means that the plant can be grown and studied 
from living material and the old plants then placed 
in an envelope and kept until the next year, when 
they can be planted and grown again. No com- 
plicated technique is necessary for the growing of 
Pyronema. A pot of garden soil should be heated. 
Heating can be carried on in an autoclave or 
sterilizing oven. If these are not to be had bake 
in an ordinary oven. Saturate the soil with tap 
water after heating and plant the spores. Growth 
of mycelium should be abundant in two or three 
days, sex organs should appear in about a week, 
and mature ascocarps a few days later. A more 
detailed account of this subject will appear in the 
Bulletin of the club. 
Dr. Marshall A. Howe spoke briefly on ‘‘Some 
Marine Alge from the Stomach of a Peruvian 
Green Turtle’’ and exhibited specimens from the 
source indicated, collected in Peru by Dr. Robert 
EH. Coker. The fragments were in a good state of 
preservation and two of the species concerned are 
readily determinable, the most abundant being 
Rhodyminia flabellifolia, a common Peruvian and 
Chilean species and a close relative of the edible 
““dulse.’’ The alga coming next in point of 
abundance is Caulerpa flagelliform lingulata, a 
species occurring elsewhere in Dr. Coker’s Peruvian 
collections, but not before reported from the shores 
of the American continent. Fragments of a species 
of Gelidiwm not so certainly determinable also 
occur. 
Dr. W. A. Murrill gave a short account of the 
progress of his studies on the Agaricacee of trop- 
ical North America and also read some mycological 
notes relating to the Washington meeting. 
THE meeting of February 13 was held at the 
American Museum of Natural History at 8:15 
P.M. Twenty-three persons were present. 
The announced scientific program consisted of a 
lecture on ‘‘Some Botanical Features of a Desert 
Mountain Range,’’? by Dr. Forrest Shreve. The 
lecture was illustrated with lantern slides. 
B. O. Dopez, 
Secretary 
