794 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 490. 



obtained fine hats are made which are worn by 

 the Malay men at their various festivals. The 

 stems of the bamboo or strips and fibers ob- 

 tained from them are put to a great variety 

 of uses by the natives of the region. 



Various food products of vegetable origin 

 were then discussed. An important starch is 

 sago, under which name are understood 

 starches derived from several kinds of palms 

 and cycads. Most of it, probably, comes from 

 the trunk of Metroxylon Sagu, the true sago 

 palm, which inhabits many of the islands of 

 the Malay Archipelago. This palm grows to 

 a height of forty feet or more and has a large, 

 comparatively smooth trunk, from the interior 

 of which the starch is derived. In the prep- 

 aration of the sago a full-grown tree is 

 selected just before the expansion of the in- 

 florescence, the trunk is felled and cut into 

 sections three or four feet in length, which are 

 thrown into water and soaked for several days. 

 Afterward, the outer fibrous portion is re- 

 naoved and the interior is reduced to a coarse 

 sawdust by means of a crude grating ap- 

 paratus. This sawdust-like powder is then 

 put into a large vessel, where the starch is 

 crushed out with the aid of water and the 

 feet of a native. It is then drawn off, 

 suspended in the water, and is finally dried 

 and shipped away for refinement. 



Palm sugar is derived chiefly from the sugar 

 palm {Arenga saccharifera) and the cocoanut 

 palm (Cocos nucifera). The sugar is ob- 

 tained from the Arenga by binding the nu- 

 merous branches of the pendulous inflorescence 

 into a compact cylinder, without removing 

 them from the tree, and then chopping off 

 the ends and making several incisions along 

 the sides of the branches. The sweet sap is 

 caught in a vessel made from a bamboo-stem; 

 it continues to flow for several days, is col- 

 lected every twenty-four hours and is boiled 

 down over a crude oven. 



The paper was brought to a close with re- 

 marks on masticatories such as the betel-nut 

 — the fruit of the Areca palm (Areca Catechu) 

 — and on some of the edible fruits, such as the 

 durian and mangosteen. 



Mr. G. Y. Nash showed flowering species of 

 Melastomaceffi from the conservatories of the 



New York Botanical Garden, including one 

 of Heterocentron elegans from Mexico and one 

 of Medinilla magnifica from the Philippines. 

 Dr. N. L. Britton exhibited specimens of 

 two apparently undescribed species of poplar 

 from Wyoming, one allied to Populus tremu- 

 loides, the other to P. augustifolia. 



Marshall A. Howe, 

 Secretary pro tern. 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 



The 155th meeting was held on April 13 

 and Mr. J. S. Diller read a paper on ' The 

 Composition and Structure of the Klamath 

 Mountains.' 



The lithologic, stratigi-aphic and faunal re- 

 lations of the various sedimentary formations 

 are considered in their order of development, 

 beginning with the mica-schist, which is pos- 

 sibly of pre-Cambrian age. The Cambrian 

 rocks of southeastern California and the Si- 

 lurian rocks of the northern part of the Sierra 

 Nevada have not yet been recognized in the 

 Klamath Mountains, the oldest fossiliferous 

 beds of that region being of Middle Devonian 

 age. The stratigraphic succession of the Pale- 

 ozoic and Mesozoic formations was discussed, 

 and especial attention was devoted to the great 

 unconformity which has been recognized at 

 the base of the Cretaceous. The distribution 

 of the marine and fresh-water Eocene in Ore- 

 gon and the Miocene in California was indi- 

 cated, as well as their relation to the develop- 

 ment of the Trinity Basin. 



In the next paper Mr. G. B. Richardson 

 discussed ' The Stratigraphic Sequence in 

 Trans-Pecos Texas North of the Texas and 

 Paciflc Eailway.' 



The rocks in this area range from pre- 

 Cambrian to recent in age, most of the sys- 

 tems being represented. There are two areas 

 of pre-Cambrian sediments: One is south of 

 the Diablo Mountains between Eagle Flat 

 and Vanhorn, where a group of folded and 

 faulted formations consisting of silicious 

 limestone, conglomerate, fine-textured red 

 sandstone and schists is exposed. The other 

 pre-Cambrian area is on the eastern flank of 

 the Franklin Mountains, where there are about 

 3,000 feet of quartzite, slate and rhyolite. 



