N0VBMBER2, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



687 



Mr. Harper reported collections in Georgia 

 during three and a half months, traversing all 

 the geological formations from the mountains 

 to the sea, and collecting 754 numbers. 



Dr. Rydberg reported two months spent in 

 southern Colorado, with several new species ; 

 among them an interesting cactus from eleva- 

 tion of 8,000 feet in the Bitter Root mountains, 

 now growing at the Botanic Gardens. 



Dr. Howe reported nine weeks spent in 

 collecting marine algae at three very differ- 

 ent stations, Bermuda, Martha's Vineyard (at 

 Edgartown), and at Seguin Island, near the 

 mouth of the Kennebec, an island four miles 

 from the mainland, of about 150° elevation, 

 its only inhabitants the three lightkeepers 

 and families. Dr. Howe discussed the Ber- 

 muda flora in the light of the Challenger re- 

 port, which recognizes 326 species, of which 

 144 are indigenous (in 109 genera and 50 fami- 

 lies) ; out of the 144, 109 occur in the south- 

 eastern United States and 108 in the West 

 Indies. The Bermuda vegetation is essentially 

 West Indian in character, and includes only 

 eight endemic species. Among the few found 

 also at New York are Osmunda regalia and cinna- 

 momea, Woodwardia Virginica, Solidago semper- 

 virens and Typha augusiifolia. Practically the 

 only trees are the Palmetto and the Bermudian 

 Cedar, the latter 20 to 50 feet high, and only 

 one or two feet thick, though some old shells 

 are five feet. The oleander is naturalized and 

 in some quarters covered the whole landscape 

 with bloom. Because of the practical absence 

 of frost, tropical trees are acclimated with sur- 

 prising success. The coffee tree has run wild 

 in the sink-holes. About 25 ferns were known 

 and eight Musci and six Hepaticae had been al- 

 ready observed. There is nowhere any brook, 

 and only one moss and one hepatica are com- 

 mon ; the others are in the Devonshire marsh 

 and the sink-holes of the Walsingham region. 

 These are open caves 30 or 40 feet deep, with 

 more moisture and shade and less wind, and 

 therefore showing quite a different flora. There 

 Dr. Howe discovered as many as 15 Hepaticse. 

 He also greatly increased the number of the 

 marine algse beyond the 132 of the Challenger 

 report. The marine flora seems at first scanty 

 on account of the absence of Fucus and Asco- 



phyllum, but proves to be varied and interest- 

 ing. It is practically that of southern Florida 

 and the West Indies. 



Dr. MacDougal reported work in northern 

 Idaho in the Priest River basin which had per- 

 haps never been visited by a botanist before. 

 There was frost nearly every night. The 

 tangled wildwood could not be penetrated more 

 than four miles a day, except as it is entered 

 by meadows stretching back from the lake. 

 Beaver-dams a quarter mile long cross these 

 meadows and convert the upper portions into 

 sedgy marshes. A colony of beavers was active 

 within 400 yards of his camp. Great stretches 

 of Drosera carpet the marshes. Interesting 

 plants were collected to 325 numbers. 



Mrs. Biitton sent in a brief report of her dis- 

 covery of the protonema of Schizaea, observed 

 as a green mat of thread-like bodies on the 

 ground. On bringing them to the Botanic Gar- 

 dens and cultivating them, she proved their de- 

 velopment into Schizaea, and found the branch- 

 ing protonema to bear 2 to 15 flask -like arche- 

 gonia on basal parts and a number of globose 

 antheridia toward the apex. Description will 

 follow in the November Bulletin. Dr. Mac- 

 Dougal remarked upon his observation of a 

 mycorhizal association of a fungus in enlarged 

 cells of this protonema. A similar association 

 has been seen in the prothallus of Botrychium. 



Professor Lloyd reported upon work on the 

 Gulf coast begun after the close of his classes 

 at the Columbia University summer school. 

 Professor Lloyd and Professor Tracy procured 

 a barge at Biloxi, Miss., by which they ex- 

 plored the flora of the islands of the Mississippi 

 Sound and of the delta proper. It was neces- 

 sary to sail for miles in two feet of water, oc- 

 casionally jumping out to push. Always a 

 furrow of mud followed in their wake. The 

 islands bear a pine-barren and a sand-dune 

 flora, with masses of Pinguicula and Drosera. 

 The island surfaces are flat and form remnants 

 of the tertiary Mississippi delta ; they average 

 only two feet above water, with a ridge a foot 

 higher on the seaward side, composed of shell- 

 fragments and continually shifted inward by 

 the wind, the waves meanwhile gnawing off 

 the seaward edge at the same rate. 



Professor Burgess reported his continued ob- 



