‘694 
American Association for the Advancement of 
‘Science this last August, one of the most inter- 
esting features of the meeting, and a tribute to 
the careful plans prepared for it by Mrs. BE. G. 
Britton. 
The remainder of the evening was devoted to 
reports from excursions and from summer ob- 
servations by members. 
Dr. Rusby, as guide to nine excursions in the 
spring, reported an average attendance of 31. 
Menispermum rhizomes, as examined at Up- 
per Mountain, N. J., April 8th, had begun no 
new growth and were still connected with the 
frost-killed stems, the point of change from 
rhizome to stem being purely an accidental re- 
‘sult of exposure. The plant being essentially 
tropical, acts toward killing frost as if but im- 
perfectly habituated to it. 
Obolaria was well-developed this day, per- 
haps the earliest spring flower of its locality. 
Professor Underwood reported on field?work 
in July, and upon the Decoration Day excur- 
sion to Tullytown, Pa., about 20 persons from 
Philadelphia and 12 from New York present. 
Isoetes riparis, a tidal plant, occurred along 
tributary rivers. 
Dr. Britton reported on the Fourth of July 
excursion to the Delaware River at Bull’s 
Island, another Isoetes, I. Dodgii, occurring 
there. 
Professor T. C. Porter reported the occur- 
rence of Equisetum littorale, Onosmodium Virgia- 
num, etc., at the Bull’s Island locality. 
Both of these excursions were contributory to 
Dr. Bretts’ revision of Dr. Meyer’s excellent 
catalogue of the Bucks county flora, soon to be 
issued. It is now being worked out with at- 
tention to details of distribution, ecology and 
modern taxonomic views. If we could have 
other counties here in the east worked up in a 
similar critical way, it would be a great aid to 
science. 
Discussions regarding various Gentians fol- 
lowed. 
Mr. Van Brunt reported seeing a single stem 
bearing 59 flowers of Gentiana crinita; all the 
upper, certainly 20, in full bloom. Putting the 
plants, after clipping, in the dark over night, 
and till9 or 10 a. m., they expanded beautifully 
on exposure to the light. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Von. X. No. 254. 
Rey. L. T. Chamberlain reported 96 buds 
and blossoms on a single stem of Gentiana crin- 
ita in Massachusetts at West Brookfield. 
White blossoms came out in six weeks, the 
stem having bloomed in his study 42 days. 
Mr. Chamberlain also reported that Mr. Isaac 
Lea, of Philadelphia, had told him of finding a 
stem of Gentiana crinita with 150 blossoms. 
Professor Porter called attention to white 
flowers of G. Andrewsii; it is this, he thinks, 
which was described as G. alba. 
Mrs. Britton reported G. quinqueflora two or 
three feet high, and Professor Porter spoke of 
the habit of this plant to produce a great variety 
of size in the same soil, with little dwarfs with 
one flower at one inch high. 
Professor Porter spoke of G. flavida as re- 
cently found in Bucks county. ‘ 
Dr. Rusby referred to a successful experi- 
ment in scattering the seeds of the Fringed 
Gentians upon the snow, resulting in a profusion 
of young seedlings. 
Mr. S. Henshaw paid a tribute to the beauty 
of the Alpine Gentians of the Old World. 
EDWARD 8S. BURGESS, 
Secretary 
SCIENCE CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WIS- 
CONSIN. 
THE Science Club of the University of Wis- 
consin held its first meeting of the year on 
October 24th, with Mr. Charles R. Van Hise, 
the newly elected President, in the chair. 
The programme of the evening consisted of 
the following papers: 
‘Earth Movements in the Pomperang Val- 
ley,’ Connecticut, by Wm. H. Hobbs; ‘Some 
Recent. Observations Upon the Change of 
Length of Iron Due to Magnetization, by L. W. 
Austin. 
The first paper was a study of block faulting 
in the Newark Formation of the Pomperang 
Valley, an area of fifty square miles in western 
Connecticut. It was illustrated by a large 
number of lantern slides. 
Mr. Austin gave the results of his recent 
work on the change of length of iron in an al- 
ternating magnetic field. He finds that when 
iron is magnetized by means of an alternating 
current, the expansion is less than with a direct 
