180 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. ,VOL. III. No. 57. 



14th. The reports of the officers and commit- 

 tees exhibited the most flourishing condition in 

 the history of the Club. The following officers 

 were elected for the ensuing year : President, 

 Hon. Addison Brown ; Vice-Presidents, T. F. 

 Allen, M. D. , and L. H. Lighthipe ; Recording 

 Secretary, Henry H. Rusby, M. D., College 

 of Pharmacy, New York City ; Corresponding 

 Secretary, John K. Small, Columbia College, 

 New York City ; Treasurer, Henry Ogden, 11 

 Pine Street, New York City; Editor, N. L. 

 Britton, Ph. D., Columbia College, New York 

 City ; Associate Editors, Emily L. Gregory, Ph. 

 D., Anna Murray Vail, Arthur Hollick, Ph. B., 

 Byron D. Halsted, Sc. D., A. A. Heller; 

 Curator, Helen M. Ingersoll ; Librarian, Wm. 

 E. Wheelock, M. D. 



The scientific paper of the evening, by Miss 

 Alice M. Isaacs and Miss Marian Satterlee, and 

 read by Miss Isaacs, was on the ' Anatomy of 

 the Leaf of Solidago Pauciflosculosa. ' The 

 study had been suggested by Prof. Britton in 

 order to throw light upon the generic position 

 of the plant, a subject involved in some doubt. 

 The leaf was compared with that of the typical 

 dicotyledonous plant and with other members 

 of the genus Solidago. The points of difference 

 noted are as follows : 1st, an unusual surface 

 whose punctate appearance is caused by an ir- 

 regular development of the parenchymatous 

 tissue ; 2d, the absence of palisade tissue charac- 

 teristic of a dicotyledonous leaf. The depres- 

 sions in the surface are found to be caused by 

 the fact that the leaf is contracted just above 

 and below the bundles, scarcely any mesophyll 

 being found between the bundles and the epi- 

 dermis. The blade expands between the bun- 

 dles, and in these expanded parts the mesophyll 

 is found. The epidermis following the outline 

 of the leaf may be cut oflF in small patches in- 

 stead of in a continuous piece as is usually the 

 case. 



Of the many species examined, Solidago sem- 

 pervirens was the only one that at all resembled 

 S. pauciflosculosa. The fact that S. pauciflos- 

 culosa is a shrubby plant, together with these 

 leaf peculiarities, seem almost sufficient to justify 

 Nuttall in classing this plant as a separate genus 

 Chrysoma. H. H. Rusby, 



Recording Secretary. 



THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 



At the meeting of January 20, 1896, 23 per- 

 sons present, Mr. C. H. Thompson exhibited 

 .specimens of a number of Lemnacese, and gave 

 in detail the results of some recent studies which 

 he had made on Wolffia gladiata, var. Floridana, 

 from the sluggish streams of southeastern Mis- 

 souri, and Wolffia lingulata, which he had col- 

 lected in Kern county, California, last autumn. 

 Both species belong to the subgenus Wolffiella, of 

 which flowers and fruit are quite unknown. The 

 species found in southern Missouri occurs asso- 

 ciated with Leitneria and other distinctively 

 Floridan forms, of which it is one, while the 

 species collected in California seems to have 

 been known heretofore only from central 

 Mexico. 



Prof. E. A. Engler, in continuation of his re- 

 marks at the last meeting, spoke of certain 

 properties of the parabola, from which it re- 

 sulted that from any point on the convex side 

 of the evolute of a parabola three normals can 

 be drawn to the latter ; from any point on the 

 evolute, two ; and from any point on the con- 

 cave side of the evolute, one. Suggestion was 

 made of the probable bearing of this demonstra- 

 tion on other curves. 



Dr. A. C. Bernays exhibited a slide of the 

 epidermis of Fritillaria, exhibiting karyokinetic 

 patterns. William Teelease, 



Recording Secretary. 



NEW BOOKS. 



Die Cheniie in Taglichen Leben. Dr. Lassab 

 CoHN. Hamburg & Leipzig, Leopold Voss. 

 1896. Pp. vii. + 258. M. 4. 



Chemistry for Engineers and Manufacturers. Be- 

 TEAM Blount and A. T. Bloxam. London, 

 Charles Griffin & Co. ; Philadelphia, J. B. 

 Lippincott Co. 1896. $3.50. 



Chemical Experiments. R. P. Williams. Bos- 

 ton and London, Ginn & Co. 1895. Pp. x. 

 + 102. 



Die Spectralanalyse. John Landauee. Braun- 

 schweig. Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn. 1896. 

 Pp. 174. 



The Child and Childhood in Folk Thought. Alex- 

 ander Francis Chambeelain. New York 

 and London, Macmillan & Co. 1896. Pp. 

 X.+464. $3.00. 



