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ceptable accession, as we are especially desirous of increasing 
the collection of cycads with large and well-grown specimens. 
They are of slow growth, and so large specimens represent many 
ears of waiting. For the purposes of study large and mature 
plants only are available, as in small plants the characteristic 
foliage and habit do not appear, nor do such plants produce 
flowers which are so essential in the classification of these odd 
members of the vegetable kingdom. 
Another gift for the palm house is from Mrs. Byron Sherman, 
of Morristown, N. J. Among the plants received from this source 
is a fine one of the curly palm, Howea Belmoreana, some eight 
feet high, This is a native of Lord Howe Island. Another 
plant in this collection is an unnamed Phoenix, which may prove 
different from anything else in the collection. Two plants of 
Cycas revoluta, the sago palm, were also received, and it is hoped 
that one of these may prove to be a staminate individual, a great 
desideratum, as all the other plants in the collection have thus far 
turned out to be pistillate. 
GrorGe V. Nasz. 
NOTES, NEWS AND COMMENT. 
Dr. Theodore Holm, of Washington, D. C., was granted the 
privileges of a research scholarship during April and May and 
carried out some work on the Ranunculaceae and on the sedges 
of the Rocky Mountains as represented in the herbarium. 
The New York Library Club held its annual meeting in the 
Lecture Hall of the Museum on Thursday, May 14. In addi- 
tion to the business transactions of the club a lecture upon 
“Flower Structures and their Meaning’’ was delivered by Mr. 
Silas H. Berry. The members of the club in attendance also 
visited the exhibition of the Horticultural Society of New York 
which was being held in the Museum on the same day, and in- 
spected the plantations and conservatories under the guidance of 
members of the staff. 
Mr. John A. Shafer, custodian of botany at the Carnegie Mu- 
seum of Pittsburg, returned from Cuba May 7. Mr. Shafer made 
