454 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 377. 



dinated things tlian they classify and co- 

 ordinate. 



May it not be because of the inexhaust- 

 ible bounty of nature, and not because com- 

 prehension is knowledge, that we can 

 never know anything as it really is? 



Each new encyclopedia is bigger than 

 the one before, and so, no doubt, it will 

 be to the end. If knowledge were nothing 

 more than comprehension, or the analysis 

 and classification of facts, the progress of 

 science should be bringing us nearer to uni- 

 versal knowledge, but each new discovery 

 puts it farther from our grasp than be- 

 fore, and they who know most are most 

 convinced of its unattainableness, not be- 

 cause the reality of things is unknowable, 

 but because of the innumerable multitude 

 of things knowable. 



W. K. Brooks. 

 Johns Hopkins Univeesity. 



THIRD ANNUAL MEETINQ OF THE BOTAN- 

 ISTS OP THE CENTRAL STATES." 



FIRST SESSION, HULL BOTANICAL LABORA- 

 TORY, ROOM 13, TUESDAY, 9 A.M. 



The meeting was called to order by C. R. 

 Barnes. About seventy botanists were pres- 

 ent. J. M. Coulter Avas elected chairman 

 and Albert Sclmeider secretary. After a 

 few preliminary remarks the chairman 

 called for the reading of scientific papers, 

 which were presented as follows: 



Charles F. Millspaugh : ' The Clothing 

 of an Islet.' (No abstract furnished.) 

 Illustrated by lantern slides. 



George H. Shull : ' Variations in Sev- 

 eral Species of Aster.' Counts were made 

 of bracts, rays and disk florets in Aster 

 Shortii Hook., A. Novce-Anglice L., A. puni- 

 ceus L., and A. prenanthoides Miihl. The 

 result of these counts gave but a single in- 

 stance of a maximum falling on a member 



* Held in cormection with the meeting of the 

 American Society of Naturalists, at the University 

 of Chicago, December 31, 1901, to January 2, 1902. 



. of the Fibonacci-series, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc., 

 the rays of Aster Shortii presenting a 

 strong mode on 13 ; a general result giving 

 but slight confirmation of Ludwig's results 

 on various other Compositse. The counting 

 of the parts of heads collected on Septem- 

 ber 27, 30, October 4 and 8, from a single 

 small plot of Aster prenanthoides, and com- 

 prising collectively all the heads produced 

 in one season, showed, alike in bracts, rays 

 and disk florets, a constant fall in the mean 

 number and a corresponding shifting of 

 the modes from the beginning to the end of 

 the flowering season. This fact must be 

 taken into account in the determination of 

 place modes. There is a close correlation 

 between the number of rays and the num- 

 ber of bracts, due to the fact that the rays 

 are axillary to the inner bracts. In the 

 four species studied the degree of imbrica- 

 tion of the bracts, and also the difference 

 in form and size between the outer and 

 inner bracts of the head are proportional 

 to the number of bracts which bear no rays 

 in their axils. A complete account of these 

 studies will appear in the American Natii- 

 ralist for February, 1902. 



Edwin B. Copeland : ' The Influence of 

 Metallic Poisons on Respiration.' Experi- 

 ments with Elodea, Callitriche, a crucifer, 

 fish and frog larvae, using as stimulants 

 copper, zinc, cadmium, silver and mercury, 

 agree in showing that the respiration may 

 be stimulated by a small fraction of a fatal 

 concentration. With increasing concentra- 

 tion the acceleration of COa-evolution is 

 greater, sometimes reaching above 25 times 

 the normal. Evolution of CO2 continues 

 undiminished after plasmolysis is suspend- 

 ed by the poison. Copper and zinc cause 

 the evolution of considerable CO2 from 

 boiled Elodea. 



Frederick C. Newcombe : ' The Sensory 

 Area of the Roots of Land Plants. ' In the 

 roots of land plants, sensitiveness to exter- 



