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coast until Galveston, Texas, is reached, at about 29" lat. Her- 
barium specimens show that it also occurs at Corpus Christi to 
the south, and at Matamoras, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, 
from which locality it was supposed to have been collected by 
Berlandier, whose material was part of that examined by Engel- 
mann. It is then lost sight of until we reach Silam, Yucatan, 
where it again occurs. Its next appearance, so far as herbarium 
material we have examined shows, is on the coast of Lower Cali- 
fornia. Here it is found at La Paz and at Magdalena Bay. It 
again enters territory of the United States at San Diego and Long 
Beach, California, the latter being its farthest north, so far as 
known, with nearly 34° lat. Its distribution would seem to in- 
dicate one controlled by temperature, with a more northern ex- 
tension on the west coast than on the east, as might be expected. 
It was the recent discovery of this grass on Cayo Cruz, lying 
to the north of Cuba, by Dr. Shafer, which made it of especial 
interest at the present time. Its detection there not only brought 
this grass into the flora of Cuba, but added it to the known flora 
of the West Indies. Mr. Hitchcock was evidently not aware of 
its occurrence in Cuba, as he makes no mention of it in his recent 
paper on the ee of that island. 
Mr. Richard C. Schneider spoke on the distribution of Actino- 
phyllum in ihe West Indies. This genus of Araliaceae is here 
represented by only three species, two a which are endemic in 
the mountains of Jamaica, while the third species is found in 
Martinique 
Mrs. Batton read a letter dated November 23 from Willia 
Harris, superintendent of Public Gardens and Plantations of 
Jamaica, giving an account of the recent floods and destruction 
of roads and bridges and washing away of the coffee plantations 
in the Blue Mountains. A letter from Dr. Forrest Shreve, 
written at Cinchona, the Tropical Laboratory of the New York 
Botanical Garden, states that between November 5 and 11 the 
total amount of precipitation amounted to 79.09 inches (nine 
months’ rain in a week) with many landslides, destruction of 
coffee fields and works and some loss of life of menand mules. 
Dr. Britton reported further on the results of Dr. J. A. Shafer’s 
a 
