414 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 480. 



was in every respect one of the best in the 

 society's history. The officers elected for 

 the ensuing year were as follows: 



President — ^Dr. 6. T. Moore, of the Department 

 of Agriculture, Washington. 



Vice-President — Professor Clara E. Cummings, 

 of Wellesley College. 



Secretary-Treasurer — Professor W. P. Ganong, 

 of Smith College. 



The following new members were elected : 

 Professor G. J. Peirce, of Leland Stanford 

 University; Professor C. H. Shaw, of the 

 Medico-Chirurgical College, Philadelphia; 

 Dr. H. S. Conard, of the University of 

 Pennsylvania. A committee, consisting of 

 the new president, the secretary-treasurer 

 and Professor D. S. Johnson, was appointed 

 to confer with similar committees from the 

 other botanical societies upon possible 

 future affiliation or union of botanical so- 

 cieties. 



The social features of the meeting were 

 very enjoyable. They included a reception 

 to the society by the Botanical Society of 

 Pennsylvania and the Graduate Botanical 

 Club of the university, in Biological Hall, 

 Monday evening, December 28, luncheon 

 tendered to the members of all the societies 

 by the university on Tuesday and "Wednes- 

 day, December 29 and 30, the smoker given 

 by the local committee to all the visiting 

 scientific men on Tuesday evening, Decem- 

 ber 29, the reception to the members of all 

 the scientific societies by Dr. and Mrs. 

 Horace Jayne on "Wednesday evening, 

 December 30, and many courtesies extended 

 to the visiting members by members of the 

 society resident in Philadelphia. On 

 "Wednesday afternoon the members of the 

 society visited and were shown the Phila- 

 delphia Museums, on the special invitation 

 of the director, Dr. "W. P. Wilson, and later 

 they visited Horticultural Hall. 



The papers, of which abstracts follow, 

 were all presented in full and discussed by 

 the society, and they include every paper 



which appeared upon the program. The 

 abstracts are in every case by the author 

 of the paper. 



Experimental Morphological Investiga- 

 tions on the Ahietinece (illustrated by 

 photomicrographic stereopticon slides) : 

 Professor E. C. Jeffrey, Harvard Uni- 

 versity. 



The intention of the present communica- 

 tion is to show that experimental investiga- 

 tion is useful in determining the most 

 primitive type of wood in the Abietinese, a 

 matter of considerable importance from the 

 standpoint of the phylogeny of the Coni- 

 ferales, since the identification of fossil 

 species in this group rests at present very 

 largely on the study of fossil woods. 

 Among the existing genera of Abietinese, 

 Pinus, Picea, Larix and Pseudotsuga are 

 characterized by the presence of resin- 

 canals in their woody tissues, while Cedrus, 

 Abies, Pseudolarix and Tsuga are without 

 ligneous resin-ducts. The question arises, 

 which of these two types of wood is the 

 more primitive, and this question the author 

 has attempted to settle from the experi- 

 mental and comparative anatomical stand- 

 points. 



Abies may be taken as an example of a 

 genus without ligneous resin-canals. In 

 Abies balsamea resin-duets appear in the 

 wood as a result of mechanical injury and 

 also as a result of the attack of parasitic 

 fungi, producing 'witches' brooms.' In 

 this and (all?) other species of Abies resin- 

 canals are also normally present in the pri- 

 mary wood of the root. In certain species 

 of Abies investigated in this connection, 

 resin-canals are found not only under the 

 conditions described for Abies balsamea, 

 but also in the woody axis of the female 

 cone and in the first annual ring of vigor- 

 ous shoots. The two last-mentioned modes 

 of occurrence of resin-canals are of special 

 interest, for they must be regarded as 



