4G2 



SCIENCE. 



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



FOURTH SESSION, THURSDAY, 10 A.M. 



The meeting called to order by the chair- 

 man. The resolution of Conway MacMillan 

 was taken from the table and discussed. 

 After amendment it was adopted in this 

 f oi-m : ' ' Resolved, That this group hereby 

 organize under the naine of the Botanists 

 of the Central States; and resolved, fur- 

 ther, that the chairman be empowered to 

 appoint a committee of three, including 

 himself, which shall report to the next 

 meeting of this body a plan of organiza- 

 tion." The chairman accordingly ap- 

 pointed as such committee Conway Mac- 

 Millan, D. M. Mottier and himself. 



William Trelease called attention to the 

 fact that as the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science and the Amer- 

 ican Society of Naturalists would meet at 

 Washington, D. C, in January, 1903, it 

 \vould be desirable for the Botanists of the 

 Central States to convene there also at the 

 same time. It was voted that the next 

 meeting be held in Washington, in Convo- 

 cation Week, 1903. Discussion continued 

 as to the desirability of a general union of 

 botanical societies to constitute a really 

 national organization, thoroughly represent- 

 ative, and with autonomous local sections, 

 e. g., at present Atlantic and Central sec- 

 tions, and as soon as possible Pacific and 

 Gulf sections. Such a plan of organization 

 would combine regional convenience with 

 national authority. 



At the close of the discussion the reading 

 of papers was continued. 



Clifton D. Howe : ' The Development 

 of the Flora on a Delta Plain in Vermont. ' 

 A delta plain formed during or subsequent 

 to the glacial period at the mouth of the 

 Winooski river has been exposed by the 

 gradual subsidence of Lake Champlain. 

 The lake is now 240 feet below the general 

 level of the delta plain. The first terres- 

 trial flora of the plain was a sand beach 



flora which crossed the plain with the con- 

 stantly receding beach. Then came plants 

 Avhich, by continually increasing the 

 amount of humus, prepared the soil for the 

 pitch pine {Finns rigida) forest, now the 

 controlling formation on the plain. The 

 gentle slopes of the ravines in the now 

 much dissected plain are controlled by a 

 mesophytie forest of the maple-beech type. 

 As the erosion brings the plain nearer a 

 base level, conditions will become more and 

 more favorable for the further extension 

 of a mesophytie forest. 



Chaeles F. Hottes : ' Functions of the 

 nucleolus in plants.' (No abstract fur- 

 nished.) 



IT. N. Whitpord : ' The Physiographic 

 Ecology of a Sand Spit Near Cold Spring 

 Harbor, Long Island.' (Read by title.) 



J. M. Westgate : ' Genetic Development 

 of the Vegetation on an Island in the Kan- 

 sas River.' In this paper the author re- 

 ports the results of four years' ecological 

 study of an island in the Kansas river. 

 The location of the island is such that the 

 silt deposits are heavy, and as a conse- 

 quence the development of the mesophytie 

 flora from the xerophytic flora of the sandy 

 border is rapid. Serial photographs and 

 notes have recorded the more salient fea- 

 tures of the changes from year to year. 

 The succession of formations as the meso- 

 phytie conditions obtain have been largely 

 verified by comparative studies along the 

 Kansas and other rivers of the Mississippi 

 basin. 



AH of the botanical papers announced 

 on the printed program were read, with the 

 exception of the one by the chairman, 

 which he passed by. The abstract is as 

 follows : 



John M. Coulter : ' Parthenogenesis in 

 Seed Plants. ' The term is used in its strict 

 sense as meaning the segmentation of an 



