December 28, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



853 



at 8:15 o'clock, at the American Museum of 

 Natural History. 



The following scientific program was pre- 

 sented : 



Account of a Collecting Trip in the Adiron- 

 dack and in the Gatshill Mountains: Dr. 

 Per Axel Eydberg. 



Dr. Rydberg gave an account of botanical 

 field studies and collecting in the regions 

 mentioned, giving special attention to the 

 blackberries. The talk was richly illustrated 

 by herbarium specimens collected on the trip. 



BemarJcs on the Flora of China: Dr. Augus- 

 tine Henry, 



Dr. Henry gave a very interesting account 

 of some features of the flora of China, point- 

 ing out its richness and great diversity, which 

 are correlated with diversity of topography 

 and climate, and emphasizing both the slight 

 amount of collecting that has as yet been done 

 there, and the important results to be obtained 

 by ecological and systematic studies in that 

 region. As an illustration of this he called 

 attention to the fact that several genera, 

 recorded in existing manuals as monotypic, 

 are known to be represented in China by sev- 

 eral distinct species. 



The club met on November 28, 1906, at the 

 museum building of the New York Botanical 

 Garden, at 3:30 p.m. In the absence of 

 President Rusby, Dr. H. L. Lighthipe was 

 called to the chair. 



The following scientific program was pre- 

 sented : 



Some Costa Rican Orchids: Mr. George V. 



Nash. 



The speaker referred to the little known 

 country of Costa Rica, and the desirability 

 of securing material from there. Mr. Wm. 

 R. Maxon, of the United States National Mu- 

 seum, during the early part of the year, made 

 an exploration in this region in the interests 

 of the New York Botanical Garden, and 

 brought back with him, not only a valuable 

 collection of herbarium material, but also a 

 large collection of living plants, representing 

 mainly the orchid, fern, bromeliad and cactus 



families. This material, owing to the care 

 taken by Mr. Maxon in collecting and pack- 

 ing it, arrived in excellent condition. A great 

 many orchids were among the lot, and several 

 of these have already flowered, revealing new 

 and interesting species. Living material is 

 especially desirable in this family of plants, 

 as the color and shape of the flowers play a 

 large part in their classification, and these 

 characters are difiicult to determine from 

 dried material. The genera Pleurothallis, 

 Elleanthus and Zygostates have each already 

 yielded one species new to science. The new 

 species of Zygostates is a particularly inter- 

 esting discovery, as it proves not only to be 

 a species hitherto unknown, but also brings 

 into the flora of North America a genus 

 known formerly only from Brazil and Peru. 

 Among other things worthy of note are: 

 W arscewiczella Wendlandii discolor, originally 

 described and known only from Costa Rica; 

 Maxillaria iridifolia, found throughout trop- 

 ical America, but certainly differing much in 

 general appearance from the other members 

 of the genus ; and Cycnoches Rossianum, orig- 

 inally described from a plant which flowered 

 in cultivation in the Garden of Mr. Ross, at 

 Florence, Italy, in 1889. The origin of this 

 plant was unknown, and it is now interesting 

 to have its home revealed in this collection 

 of Mr. Maxon's. The remarks were illus- 

 trated with living plants of the species re- 

 ferred to, supplemented with herbarium speci- 

 mens, drawings and material preserved in 

 formalin. 



The Sedges of Jamaica: Dr. N. L. Britton. 

 Dr. Britton exhibited specimens of all spe- 

 cies of Cyperacese known to occur on the 

 island of Jamaica, including several species 

 new to that island, collected by Professor 

 Underwood, or by himself during a visit to 

 Jamaica in the month of September. He 

 remarked on the distribution of many of these 

 species, and on the fact that a number of 

 them are found in the West Indies only in 

 Jamaica, their further distribution being 

 Central America and South America. This 

 distribution of these sedges is paralleled by 

 that of a considerable number of species in 



