Januaey 8, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



71 



had to weapon himself for his protection. 

 Prehistoric flint weapons which stand at the 

 beginning of the sword were exhibited and 

 traced along to the seft of Egypt, down 

 through the various derivative forms in Af- 

 rica, Europe and Asia in the different periods. 

 Colonel Beckwith described the sword blade, 

 the nomenclature of its parts and the reasons 

 for the different forms, closing with remarks 

 on the decline of the weapon incident to mod- 

 ern warfare. 



The question of the preservation of the an- 

 tiquities of the United States, which was laid 

 over from a former meeting, was brought up 

 by Dr. H. M. Baum, who urged action. Pro- 

 fessor Holmes said that the Bureau of Eth- 

 nology has taken up the subject and that Mr. 

 McGuire is engaged in examining the laws of 

 various countries with a view to the prepara- 

 tion of an act for the United States. Dr. 

 Baum suggested that a movement be put on 

 foot to awaken public sentiment in the pres- 

 ervation of antiquities and to this end the 

 society should petition and put the matter 

 before congress. Dr. Lamb moved that a 

 committee of five members be appointed to 

 consider and report on the ways and means 

 for the preservation of antiquities. The mo- 

 tion was seconded by Mrs. S. S. James, who 

 spoke of the work in this line by the ladies of 

 Colorado. The president thereupon appointed 

 a committee consisting of W. H. Holmes, J. 

 W. Fewkes, A. Hrdlicka, H. M. Baum and 

 J. D. McGuire. "Walter Hough, 



Secretary. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The sixteenth regular meeting of the Botan- 

 ical Society of Washington was held at the 

 Portner Hotel, December 5, 1903, with thirty- 

 seven persons present. 



The following program was presented: 

 1. The Salt Content of Seaheach Soils : T. H. 



Keakney. 



Most writers upon the ecology of strand 

 vegetation have implied, or even explicitly 

 stated, their belief that the sands of the sea- 

 beach are impregnated with salt in amounts 

 sufiicient to determine the character of the 

 plant growth. This hypothesis is not sus- 



tained by an examination of samples of dune 

 and beach sand taken on the shore of Buzzards 

 Bay, Massachusetts, near Norfolk, Virginia, 

 and near Los Angeles, California. On the 

 contrary, the amounts of soluble salt present, 

 as determined by the electrolytical method 

 used by the Bureau of Soils of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, is generally 

 less than that found in most cultivated soils in 

 the eastern (humid) part of the United States. 



The greatest amount of salt detected in 

 beach sand occurred in a sample taken at Los 

 Angeles, California, which gave an electrical 

 resistance (at 60° F.) of 158 ohms (equivalent 

 to about 0.15 per cent, of salt to soil) for the 

 first foot, and 180 ohms (equivalent to about 

 0.12 per cent.) for the second foot, an amount 

 not greater than that sometimes occurring in 

 cultivated land in the eastern United States. 

 We are, therefore, constrained to attribute the 

 xerophytic character of sand-strand vegetation 

 to factors in the environment other than the 

 presence in the soil of an excessive amount of 

 soluble salt. 



On the other hand, coast marshes that are 

 regularly inundated by salt or brackish water 

 possess a distinctly saline soil, and their 

 vegetation may safely be termed halophytic, 

 so far as halophytes may be regarded as form- 

 ing an ecological class distinct from other 

 xerophytes. 



2. The Influence of Climate and Soil on the 

 Transmitting Power of Seeds: Will W. 

 Tracy, Sr. This paper will be published 

 later in Science. 



3. The American Ginseng Industry: E. V. 

 CoviLLE. Herbert J. Webber, 



Corresponding Secretary. 



torrey botanical club. 

 At the regular meeting of the club held at 

 the College of Pharmacy, December 8, 1903, 

 the scientific program consisted of a paper 

 by Mr. W. L. Home on ' The Vegetation of 

 Kadiak Island, Alaska.' The paper was illus- 

 trated by a large number of botanical speci- 

 mens and by numerous photographs showing 

 the topography of the island and the char- 

 acteristics of the different plant formations. 

 Kadiak Island is 58° north latitude and 155° 



