404 



SCIENCE. 



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



in the principal centers within natural 

 geographical districts, would combine with 

 the American Association whenever the 

 latter meets within their territory, the 

 American Association thus forming a bond 

 between the various regional societies. 



Report of the Committee on the Botanisches 

 CentralUatt, presented by the Chairman, 

 Professor W. G. Farlow, Harvard Uni- 

 versity. 



Printed copies of the report were dis- 

 tributed to those present. It showed a com- 

 pletely successful result of the committee's 

 work. A full account of this report and 

 its bearings \^an be given elsewhere in this 

 journal, so that for the present it is 

 enough to say that it describes the con- 

 tinuance of the correspondence with the 

 proprietors of the Botanisches C entralblatt 

 authorized by the Society last year, the 

 purchase of the CentralMatt by the Asso- 

 ciation Internationale des Botanistes, and 

 the selection of the seven American editors 

 of the journal. The committee having com- 

 pleted its work was discharged with the 

 thanks of the Society. Professor Farlow 

 explained further the present status of the 

 Centralblatt as the organ of the Association 

 Internationale, and the business features of 

 the arrangement. Membership in the As- 

 sociation is open to any one interested in 

 botany, on payment of the annual subscrip- 

 tion of 25 shillings, and all members will 

 receive the Centralblatt free. To meet the 

 purchase price of the Centralblatt one hun- 

 dred bonds have been issued of the value 

 of 250 florins each ($100.68), subscription 

 to one or more of which makes one a foim- 

 dation member of the Association. These 

 bonds bear interest at the rate of 2^ per 

 cent, and are to be redeemed from the 

 profits of the Centralblatt. Very few have 

 yet been taken in this country, and it is de- 

 sirable, in order that this country may do its 

 share in this important matter, that more 



should be taken here. The Centralblatt 

 promises to be a strong journal of reviews, 

 indispensable to every botanist, and it now 

 has the support of the leading botanists of 

 the world. In the discussion which fol- 

 lowed, it was pointed out that American 

 members of the Association Internationale 

 would soon be called upon to vote for two 

 American members of the general executive 

 committee of the Association. There ap- 

 pears to be no body of botanists with 

 authority to make nominations of such 

 members, although in the absence of nomi- 

 nations the votes are likely to be very scat- 

 tering or even not east at all. It was then 

 suggested that, in view of the fact that this 

 Society had managed the correspondence 

 with the proprietors of the Centralblatt 

 and had aided the Association Internation- 

 ale to choose American editors, etc., it 

 might not be inappropriate for the Society 

 also to suggest nominations of American 

 members of the executive committee. Ac- 

 cordingly the Society voted to thus suggest 

 the nomination of Professors W. G. Farlow 

 and C. B. Bessey. Professor Farlow stated 

 that he would be unable to serve on the 

 committee, and accordingly Professor W. 

 F. Ganong was nominated instead. It was 

 announced that any further information 

 about the subject, copies of the report of 

 the committee, or of the blank forms of 

 application for membership in the Associa- 

 tion or for subscription to bonds, could be 

 obtained from Professor Trelease, Missouri 

 Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Mo., chairman 

 of the American Board, or from the secre- 

 tary of the Society. 



On the Teaching of Vegetable Pathology : 

 Dr. Hermann von Schrenk, Shaw 

 School of Botany. 



The speaker discussed the scope of vege- 

 table pathology and urged the necessity of 

 recognizing the plant as a living organism. 

 For a course of vegetable pathology, a 



