402 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 376. 



On the afternoon of January 1 the So- 

 ciety adjourned to the New York Botanical 

 Garden at Bronx Park, where the museums, 

 laboratories and collections of living plants 

 were shown by members of the Garden 

 staff, and Professor MacDougal exhibited 

 some new appliances developed in connec- 

 tion with his physiological work. 



Among the enjoyable social features of 

 the meeting were the luncheon given to the 

 Society and its guests at the Teachers Col- 

 lege by Professor Lloyd, and the very 

 pleasant informal dinner of the botanists 

 on Wednesday evening. The hospitality of 

 the New York botanists to the members of 

 the Society and their guests was most cor- 

 dial, and contributed greatly to the pleas- 

 ure and profit of the meeting. A group 

 photograph of the Society was taken, re- 

 sulting in an excellent picture, concerning 

 the cost and other particulars of which in- 

 formation will be furnished by the secre- 

 tary. 



The address -of the retiring president, 

 Dr. Erwin F. Smith, was delivered at the 

 dinner. It dealt with ' Plant Pathology, 

 a Retroprospect and Prospect. ' It vsdll soon 

 appear in full in Science. 



The following papers and reports were 

 presented and discussed. Owing to the 

 crowded condition of the program at the 

 preceding meetings, papers were accepted 

 this year from members and noininees to 

 membership only. The abstracts are pre- 

 pared by the authors. 



Artificial Changes affecting the Vegetation 

 of the Huron River: Professor V. M. 

 Spalding, University of Michigan. 

 In the course of a botanical survey of the 

 Huron river and valley it has been found 

 that artificial changes induced by the erec- 

 tion and breaking down of dams have been 

 followed by rapid and extensive readjust- 

 ment and adaptation. Changes of water 

 level and rapidity of current are respon- 



sible for some of the most striking phe- 

 nomena. Several species, among them Poly- 

 gonum emersum and Solanum Dulcamara, 

 exhibit remarkable plasticity, and their 

 structural changes are such as enable 

 them to play the part of aquatics or of 

 land plants as the raising or lowering of 

 the water level may require. Charts are 

 being constructed to show the present dis- 

 tribution of the various plant societies of 

 the river and valley in the vicinity of Ann 

 Arbor. 



A Floating Tropical Botanical Laboratory : 

 Dr. John W, Haeshbergek, University 

 of Pennsylvania. (Illustrated.) 

 The West Indies, lying in close proximity 

 to the United States, are easily accessible to 

 American botanists. By means of lantern 

 slides, a few of the possible lines of research 

 work, suggested on a visit to the Bahamas, 

 Haiti and Jamaica during the summer of 

 1901, were illustrated. It was suggested 

 that an investigation of the mature bending 

 of the trunk of the coco-nut palm, of the 

 pollination of the West Indian grown figs 

 (Ficus), of the ecologie relationship of the 

 plants of the strand, of the xerophytic and 

 mesophytic forests, might be undertaken 

 with profit. As many of the islands have 

 an irregular coast line, are somewhat in- 

 accessible, and as the inhabitants of Haiti 

 look with suspicion upon strangers, it was 

 thought advisable in investigating the flora 

 of the various islands to visit them by 

 means of a steamer fitted up as a tropical 

 research laboratory. The steamers, Nor- 

 wegian built (such as the Belvernon and 

 Mt. Vernon of the Cameron Line), cut 

 away fore and aft, were thought best 

 adapted for the purpose. 



The Physiology of Sea Water: Dr. Rod- 

 ney H. True, Department of Agricul- 

 ture. 

 The studies reported were made at 



