350 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 374. 



At the business session the secretary was re- 

 elected for the ensuing year and associated 

 with him on the program committee were 

 Professors Townsend and Dowling. 



Thomas F. Holgate, 

 Secretary of the Section. 



THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



At the annual meeting of the Club, held on 

 January 14, the Secretary reported 15 meet- 

 ings held with an attendance averaging 20 ; 28 

 active members elected, total present active 

 membership 238. Alternate meetings have been 

 held at the Botanical Garden at Bronx Park 

 and at the College of Pharmacy. The num- 

 ber of scientific papers has been 26, besides 

 about 34 informal notes. 



The editor in chief. Professor Underwood, 

 reported issue of the largest volume of the 

 Bulletin in its history, 706 pages and 48 

 plates. It is the intention to make the Bulle- 

 tin a necessity to botanists the world over. 

 The monthly index of recent literature has 

 been reprinted as usual in card form and in- 

 cludes 983 titles for 1901, an increase of 127. 

 Volume 10 of the Memoirs, including the 

 first part of E. S. Burgess' 'Aster Studies' is 

 nearly through the press. No. 1 of Vol. 11, 

 Mr. Griifiths' memoir on North American 

 Sordariacese, has been printed. The principle 

 adopted with the issue of Vol. 7 to make the 

 memoirs pay for their own publication has 

 heen eminently successful. An increased 

 sale of recent volumes and of sets was re- 

 ported. The following forthcoming publica- 

 tions were announced: In Vol. 8, the con- 

 clusion of Professor Lloyd's studies on the 

 embryology of the Rubiacese; by Dr. A. W. 

 Evans, 'A Monograph of the Lejeuneae of 

 the United States and Canada'; by Mrs. E. 

 G. Britton and Miss Alexandrina Taylor, 'The 

 Life History of Viitaria lineata; in Vol. 11, 

 'The Ulothricacese and ChastophoraceEe of the 

 United States,' by Mr. T. B. Hazen; Vol. 12, 

 the second part of E. S. Burgess' 'Aster 

 Studies.' 



Dr. M. A. Howe, the editor, reported an en- 

 couraging first year for Torreya, the monthly 

 started by the club with January, 1901, for 



briefer notes and botanical matter of a more 

 popular nature. 



Dr. J. K. Small reported on the recent in- 

 stallation of the club's herbarium at the 

 Botanical Garden, where it is now to form 

 the nucleus of a representative local collection 

 to cover the fiora of New York and vicinity 

 within the 100-mile limit. 



The annual election followed, the oificers 

 elected including Hon. Addison Brown, 

 President; Dr. T. F. Allen and Dr. H. H. 

 Rusby, Vice-Presidents ; Professor F. E. Lloyd, 

 Treasurer; Edward S. Burgess, Recording 

 Secretary; Dr. L. M. Underwood, Editor of 

 the Bulletin; Dr. M. A. Howe, Editor of 

 Torreya. 



E. S. Burgess, 



Secretary. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 123d meeting was held January 22. 

 The first paper, ' The Development of Septa in 

 Paleozoic Corals,' by Dr. J. E. Duerden, gave 

 an account of some of his recent results on the 

 mesenterial and septal development of modern 

 and fossil corals. After referring to the differ- 

 ence in this respect between Porites and 

 Madrepora as compared with most other re- 

 cent corals, the author proceeded to show how 

 closely the septal development in the Palseozoic 

 Rugose corals conforms with the mesenterial 

 sequence in living Zoanthid polyps. Serial 

 sections of the Carboniferous Lophophyllum 

 proliferum (McChesney) demonstrate that the 

 primary stage in the growth of this coral is 

 six-rayed, and that in the subsequent develop- 

 ment new septa are added successively within 

 only four of the six primary interseptal cham- 

 bers. The relationships can also be confirmed 

 by means of the external ridges and grooves 

 on the corallum. 



The facts prove that while in their primary 

 stage the Rugosa are hexameral, yet they can 

 not be brought into close relationship with 

 modern corals, but are undoubtedly allied to 

 the Zoanthids which flourish to-day mainly in 

 tropical seas. In the past the Zoanthids prob- 

 ably bore much the same relationship to the 

 Rugose corals which living Actinians hold to 

 recent corals. 



