632 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 799 



unique experience. Nothing of especial note, 

 however, was brought to light. 



The whale was evidently an aged " bull " 

 that had been driven from the " herd " by the 

 younger males, had led a " maverick " exist- 

 ence for some time and had strayed far from 

 his native haunts. It is probable that he had 

 met his fate through an ill-advised pursuit of 

 a school of cuttle-fish or squids into a shallow 

 bay, where he became stranded in soft black 

 mud, which soon filled his lungs and literally 

 drowned him. 



I have been able to find no previous record 

 of a sperm whale coming ashore on the Gulf 

 of Mexico. If there are other cases I should 

 be glad to learn of them. 



H. H. Newman 



Austin, Texas 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATJOlf FOR TEE 



ADVANCEMENT OP SCIENCE 

 SECTION G— BOTANY, BOSTON MEETING 

 As in previous years. Section G held its ses- 

 sions in alternation with the Botanical Society 

 of America. At Boston a further system of inter- 

 locking was made necessary by the program of the 

 newly organized American Phytopathological So- 

 ciety, but it was found by making mutual conces- 

 sions that conflict of programs could be reduced 

 to a minimum. One joint session was held with 

 the American Phytopathological Society. In the 

 enforced absence of Vice-president Penhallow on 

 account of illness. Dr. B. M. Davis, of Cambridge, 

 was selected vice-president pro tem. The address 

 of the retiring vice-president, Professor H. M. 

 Richards, entitled " On the Nature of Response to 

 Chemical Stimulation," has been published in full 

 in SciEKCE. This address was followed by a sym- 

 posium on botanical gardens, participated in by 

 William Trelease, N. L. Britton, W. F. Ganong, 

 D. S. Johnson and A. F. Blakeslee; it is expected 

 that this symposium will be published in full in 

 Science. 



The following officers were chosen: 



fice-president—'PioiessoT R. A. Harper. 



Member of th^ Council — Professor A. D. Selby. 



Member of the Section-al Committee (five years) 

 —Professor H. M. Richards. 



Member of the General Committee— FToiessoT 

 G. F. Atkinson. 



Abstracts of the technical papers follow. 



Further Observations on the Nature of the Fertile 



Spike in Ophioglossacew : M. A. Chetsleb. 



The writer's view as to the morphological nature 

 of the fertile spike in Opliioglossaeeae, derived from 

 an anatomical study, receives striking confirma- 

 tion from certain specimens of Botrychium 06- 

 liquum collected in New Hampshire. These bear 

 either a pair of fertile spikes in place of the nor- 

 mal one, or a pair in addition to the normal one 

 and inserted above it. The vascular supply of the 

 pair of spikes indicates that they represent a pair 

 01 fertile leaflets, and the single spike represents 

 a fused basal pair of fertile leaflets. In some 

 cases the two spikes of the pair are fused for part 

 of their length, and in other cases part of the 

 ordinarily sterile segment is fertile. These facts 

 in connection with other considerations lead to the 

 conclusion that the fertile spike of Botrychium 

 and Ophioglossum represents two fused basal 

 pinnae of a fern leaf. 

 Change of Sex in Humulus Lupulus not due to 



Traumatism: W. W. Stockbergeb. 



The bisexual inflorescence of Humulus Lupulus 

 L. was the subject of a brief paper read by the 

 writer before the Botanical Society of America at 

 the Chicago meeting in 1907-8. Since that time 

 some experiments have been performed and data 

 from other sources collected which tend to refute 

 the theory that traumatism is the cause of this 

 abnormality. Removal of the tap root, severe 

 pruning, removal of portions of the crown and 

 cutting back the vines after they had attained a 

 length of four to six feet all failed to cause any 

 change in the normal production of the flowers. 



Further, the experiments show that a plant 

 which once produces the abnormal type of in- 

 florescence will continue to do so through suc- 

 cessive seasons and will transmit this tendency to 

 its asexual progeny. So far as observation goes, 

 it appears that only plants bearing pistillate 

 flowers are subject to reversal of sex. In an ex- 

 perimental plot of 1,400 seedlings all the plants 

 were apparently normal at first and bore either 

 staminate or pistillate flowers respectively. Later 

 in the summer some of the plants bearing pistil- 

 late flowers developed staminate flowers also. 

 Since none of these plants were subjected to the 

 vigorous traumatic treatment described above it is 

 held that some factor other than traumatism 

 produces the sex reversal. 

 Tlie Taxonomie Value of the Gephalodia in Certain 



Species of Stereocaulon : Lincoln W. Riddle. 



Stereocaulon paschale (L. ) Ach. and S. tomen- 

 tosum Ft. have been separated hitherto chiefly by 



