230 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 293. 



ists in each locality, to create a corps of col- 

 lecting botanists wherever there may be few or 

 none at present, to encourage the formation of 

 field clubs, to publish lists of local floras in the 

 local press, to conduct from year to year exact 

 phenological observations, etc. ; for which pur- 

 poses the secretaries for the provinces may ap- 

 point secretaries for counties or districts, who 

 will be expected, in like manner, to transmit 

 the same impetus to as many as possible in their 

 own spheres of action. Members and secre- 

 taries, while carrying out plans of operation 

 which they may find to be promising of success 

 in their particular district, will report as fre- 

 quently as convenient to the oflicer under whom 

 they may be immediately acting. Before the 

 end of January, at the latest, reports of the 

 work done within the various provinces during 

 the year ended December the 31st, previous, 

 should be made by the secretaries for the 

 provinces to the general secretary, from which 

 the annual report to the Royal Society shall be 

 principally compiled. By the first of January, 

 therefore, the annual reports of county secre- 

 taries and members should be sent in to the 

 secretaries for the provinces. 



The annual report of the club for the year May 

 20, 1898, to May 20, 1899, issued as a part of Vol. 

 v.. Trans Soy. Soc. Can., second series, 1899- 

 1900, contains a sketch of the history of ' Phe- 

 nological Observations in Canada.' It also in- 

 dicates the progress of botanical research, points 

 out the results obtained in Newfoundland, as 

 well as in Labrador, Prince Edward Island and 

 Nova Scotia. This is followed by ' Observations 

 in a Wild Garden,' by Dr. G. U. Hay, of St. 

 John, New Brunswick, besides notes on work 

 done in Ontario. Professor Macoun's researches 

 in the ' Cryptogamic Flora of Ottawa,' pub- 

 lished in The Ottawa Naturalist, and Mr. James 

 M. Macoun's ' Contributions from the Her- 

 barium of the Geological Survey of Canada ' 

 have been published in The Canadian Record of 

 Science and in The Ottawa Naturalist. 



Full descriptions of the new species of Ottawa 

 Violets were given with excellent plates in The 

 Ottawa Naturalist of January, 1899, No. 10, 

 Vol. XII., and reference is also made to Viola 

 Watsoni Greene, from Prince Edward Island, 

 and another new species from British Columbia, 



besides notes on the genera Antennaria and Fra- 

 garia. 



From Alberta, Assiniboia and British Colum- 

 bia reports are also sent in. The teachers of 

 the Department of Public Instruction in Nova 

 Scotia, of which Dr. A. H. MacKay is Superin- 

 tendent, have been most active in recording 

 phenological observations, from which excellent 

 results were gathered. 



The officers of the Botanical Club of Canada 

 for the ensuing year are : 



President: John Macoun, M.A., F.L.S., Ottawa. 



General Secretary-Treasurer : A. H. MacKay, LL.D., 

 Halifax . 



Secretaries for the Several Provinces : Newfoundland, 

 Eev. A. C. Waghorne, Bay of Islands. 



Prince Edward Island, Principal John McSwain, 

 Charlottetown. 



Nova Scotia, Dr. A. H. MacKay (General Secre- 

 tary-Treasurer), Halifax. 



New Brunswick, George U. Hay, M.A., Ph.B., St. 

 John. 



Quebec, Professor D. P. Penhallow, B.Sc, McGill 

 University, Montreal. 



Ontario, Principal Wm. Scott., B.A., Normal 

 School, Toronto, Toronto. 



Manitoba, Eev. W. A. Burman, B.D., Winnipeg. 



Assiniboia, Thomas E. Donnelly, Esq., Pheasant 

 Forks. 



Alberta, T. C. Willing, Esq., Olds, N. W. T. 



Saskatchewan, Eev. C. W. Bryden, Willoughby. 



British Columbia (Mainland), J. K. Henry, B.A., 

 High School, Vancouver. 



Vancouver Island, A. J. Pineo, B.A., High School, 

 Victoria. 



H. M. A. 



Ottawa, June, 1900. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENOE. 



HERMAPHRODITISM AMONG THE D0C0QL0S9A. 



In a recent number of Science (ix, 914) Dr. 

 Dall gives a brief account of the newly dis- 

 covered Bathysciadium conicum, in the course of 

 which he remarks that should the animal prove 

 to be really hermaphrodite, it will be the first 

 of the Docoglossa to exhibit this character. 

 This statement is one of Dr. Dall's rare slips ; 

 hermaphroditism has already been recorded in 

 the case of Patella vulgata (Gemmill, Anat. Anz., 

 xii, 392-4, 1896), andof^cmKa/rapi7is(Willcox, 

 Jen. Zeitschr. , xxxii, 441 et seq. , 1899). Gemmill 

 believes that this condition in Patella is excep- 



