May 8, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



695 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



BOTANICAL SOCIETT OF WASHINGTON 



The ninety-third regular meeting of the Botan- 

 ical Society of Washington was held in the As- 

 sembly Hall of the Cosmos Club at 8 p.m., Tues- 

 day, January 6, 1914, with 42 members and 5 

 guests present. 



Application for membership of Messrs. H. Pit- 

 tier, Arno Viehoever and Raymond B. Wilcox were 

 read. Messrs. Charles Thom, Charles S. Ridgway, 

 George D. Clark, Clarence W. Carpenter, William 

 A. Dayton, Orlo A. Pratt and Nathan R. Smith 

 were elected to membership. 



Mr. F. L. Lewton called attention to the discov- 

 ery of the records of the Washington Botanical 

 Club, the predecessor of this society from 1898- 

 1902. He stated that these records were missing 

 when the history of the society was written up a 

 few years ago, and also gave a brief review of 

 the club. 



The scientific program was as follows: 



The James Biver Hybrid Walnut: Peter Bisset. 



(With lantern.) 



Lantern slides were shown of a walnut tree on 

 the Rowe Farm, on the James River, opposite 

 Lower Brandon, Va. The tree is 100 ft. high, 

 with a spread of 123 ft., although until a recent 

 storm the spread was 134 ft. At 4 ft. from the 

 ground the tree is 31 ft. 3 in. in circumference, 

 and at 6 ft. from the ground is over 25 ft. in cir- 

 cumference. At 12 ft. from the ground it divides 

 into four large branches, three of which are larger 

 than any tree m the neighborhood. No one has 

 any definite knowledge of the age of the tree, but 

 as the old farmhouse was buUt about 200 years 

 ago it is supposed that the seed was planted at 

 that time. Its growth was probably rapid, judged 

 from seedlings which attained a height of 5 ft. 

 10 in. in one season, as compared with 3 ft. in 

 seedlings of Juglans jvigra which grew beside 

 them. A eeedling planted nearby about 1860 is 

 now 2i ft. in diameter and of the height of the 

 parent tree. The characters of the leaves and 

 nuts axe such as to suggest a possible hybrid 

 origin. The pubescence of the branches and 

 leaves agrees with Juglans cinerea and the fruit 

 and other leaf characters suggest Juglans regia 

 instead of J. nigra. The nuts are of low vitality 

 and very thick shell. 



Smelter Injury in Southeastern Tennessee : Dk. G. 

 G. Hedgecock. (With lantern.) 



To be published in the Journal of the Washing- 

 ton Academy. 



Some Chinese Horticultural Brassica Species: Dr. 

 D. N. Shoemaker. (With lantern.) 

 Horticultural forms of Chinese Brassicas in the 

 United States at present are: Three well marked 

 varieties of mustard, Brassica juncea. These are 

 well established in the American seed trade. 

 Four types of non-pungent brassicas, of uncertain 

 specific relations: (1) The heading forms, Chinese 

 name Pai Taai. These make long heads resting on 

 the surface of the ground, and present many va- 

 rieties. (2) A form with long broad petioles, and 

 long light green leaf blades, the veins of which 

 are quite prominent. (3) A form with very broad 

 short flat petioles, and dark green leaf blades. 

 These usually send up swollen seeding stems. 

 (4) A very loose-leafed round petioled form, used 

 by the Chinese as a summer vegetable. 



The ninety-fifth regular meeting of the society 

 was held at the Play House on Tuesday evening, 

 March 3, 1914, at eight o'clock, at which the re- 

 tiring president. Dr. W. W. Stockberger, delivered 

 an address on the social obligations of the botan- 

 ist (to be published in Science). 



The ninety-sixth regular meeting of the society 

 was held at the Cosmos Club, Tuesday, April 7, 

 1914, at eight o'clock. 



Messrs. Robert B. Whitney and H. S. Westover 

 were unanimously elected to membership in this 

 society. 



The scientific program was as follows: 



Professor A. S. Hitchcock reviewed (a) a paper 

 by Trabut in which he states that the oats com- 

 monly cultivated in temperate regions descended 

 from Avena fatua, the Algerian oat from A. sterilis 

 and A. strigosa from A. iariata; (b) a paper by 

 Sehulz on the origin of wheat in which he states 

 that Triticum m-onococcum descended from T. 

 cegilopoides, T. dicoccum from T. dicoccoides, and 

 T. spelta from an as yet undiscovered wild form; 

 that the naked wheats are derived from the spelt 

 wheats, T. turgidum, T. durum and T. polonicum 

 from T. dicoccum, and T. vulgare and T. com- 

 pactum from T. spelta. 



Dr. H. L. Shaatz reviewed a paper by Sir Fran- 

 cis Darwin.i A method by which the infiuence of 

 stomatal adjustment on the rate of transpiration 

 is eliminated. The stomata of the lower surface 

 of the leaf are locked with cocoa butter or petro- 

 latum and incisions made through the upper epider- 



1 Proceedings of the Eoyal Society, Series B, 

 Vol. 87, February, 1914. 



