November 28, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



867 



reports of the members upon work done dur- 

 ing the surmner in matters of interest to the 

 section. 



George F. Kunz exhibited a section of the 

 tusk of the elephant Tip that was killed sev- 

 eral years ago because he had become so cross. 

 The section of the tooth showed a large cavity 

 amounting to a couple of cubic inches, near 

 the end of the conical cavity at the root of the 

 tooth. It was suggested that possibly this 

 cavity represented an ulceration of the tooth 

 and that the bad humor of the elephant was 

 really due to a bad tooth. After discussion by 

 Professor Cattell and others, it was apparently 

 the opinion of those best qualified to know 

 that this cavity was not the result of any such 

 ulceration, and that probably the elephant 

 would not suffer from toothache in any case. 



William Hallock made an informal report 

 upon barometric and boiling-point observa- 

 tions made during the ascent of Mt. Whitney 

 during the month of August. He called at- 

 tention to the use of the boiling-point ap- 

 paratus as checking the barometer, and to the 

 necessity of taking into consideration the 

 temperature and humidity of the air, as well 

 as the simple barometric pressure. He also 

 referred to certain interesting lava fields on 

 Whitney Creek to the southwest from Mi. 

 Whitney. 



G. B. Pegram gave an interesting account 

 of the work done at the magnetic observatories 

 in this country, and especially at the one at 

 Cheltenliam, Md., with which he was con- 

 nected during the summer vacation. 



Dr. D. S. Martin referred to the interesting 

 minerals exhibited at the exposition of the 

 South at Charleston, and showed a sample of 

 the ash from Mt. Pelee which was brought to 

 Charleston on one of the incoming vessels. 

 He will report more in detail upon this subject 

 in the section of mineralogy later on. 



S. A. Mitchell, 

 Secretary of Section. 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



At the meeting of the Club on October 29 

 the first paper presented was by Miss F. A. 

 Mulford, ' Remarks on Gerardia decemloha, 

 Greene,' with exhibition of specimens. The 



plant was found at Hempstead, Long Island; 

 September 5, 1902. This is the second sta- 

 tion for the species, it having first been found 

 by Professor Greene at Washington, D. C, 

 in 1898. Dr. Britton followed with remarks 

 upon the peculiar physiography of the Hemp- 

 stead plain, its isolation, and the lack of 

 trees, which is perhaps due to fires. 



The second paper was by Miss Anna Mur- 

 ray Vail, on ' Some Eare Books Eecently 

 Added to the Library of the New York Botan- 

 ical Garden.' This will shortly appear in the 

 Journal of the Botanical Garden. Among 

 some 400 works of the older botany recently 

 procured by the Garden and now exhibited to 

 the Club, the oldest is a fifteenth century 

 Gothic manuscript of Macer Floridus ' ' De 

 virtutibus herbarum.' The oldest printed 

 volume is one of the ' Ortus Sanitatis,' from 

 the end of the fifteenth century; the next, 

 the Venice edition of 1509 of the ' Aggregator 

 practicus,' one of the herbals often known 

 simply as ' Herbarius.' Later notable works 

 secured include many of those of Mattioli, 

 Dodoens and Lobel; the rare first volumes 

 issued by Dodoens (his ' De frugum,' 1552) 

 and by Clusius (1557) ; also a copy of Clusius' 

 greatest work, his ' Eariorum ' of 1601, of 

 special interest because a presentation copy 

 from Clusius himself. Earities include a 

 Passaeus of 1614, and the elephant folio of 

 the ' Hortus Eystettensis ' of 1613, in un- 

 usually fine preservation. There is a fine 

 copy of Rivinus of 1690 ; and one of Linnaeus' 

 rarest works, his autobiographical pamphlet 

 of 1741, ' Orbis eruditi,' believed to exist in 

 only four copies. 



The third paper was by Dr. Eydberg, 'A 

 Eeview of a Eecent Monograph of Campanula 

 roiundifolia and its Allies.' Discussing this 

 paper. Dr. MacDougal called attention to the 

 work of Goebel on this plant. He said that 

 Goebel had been able to produce rounded 

 leaves on Campanula by experiment, and in 

 any part other than the inflorescence, but 

 that it had not been possible to prevent the 

 formation of the rounded basal leaves. 



The final paper was given by Dr. Arthur 

 Hollick, on ' Buried Swamp Deposits of Mary- 

 land.' 



