July 14, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



49 



ness. The general management of the society 

 is in the hands of an executive council of six 

 members. Steps have already been taken 

 tovpards the establishment of several divisions. 



The total membership of the society is two 

 hundred and thirty-six. 



L. D. Ames, of Columbia, presided at the 

 meeting. The following officers were elected: 



President — H. C. Harvey, Kirksville. 



Y ice-President — L. M. Defoe, Columbia. 



Secretary — L. D. Ames, Columbia. 



Executive Council — E. E. Hedrick, Columbia 

 (chairman) ; B. T. Chace, Kansas City; B. F. 

 Finkel, Springfield; B. F. Johnston, Cape 

 Girardeau; Wm. Schuyler, St. Louis; Miss E. J. 

 Webster, Kansas City. 



The monthly joiirnal. School Science and 

 Mathematics, was made the official organ of 

 the society, and will be sent free to all mem- 

 bers. The annual dues are one dollar and 

 fifty cents. 



Arrangements were made to send delegates 

 to a conference to be held in connection with 

 the National Educational Association, which 

 met at Asbury Park, N. J., on July 7-11, 

 1905, looking towards the organization of a 

 national society. 



The following papers were read: 



E. Y. BuetojSI, St. Charles Military Academy: 

 ' Correlation of Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry 

 and Trigonometry.' 



Wm. Schuyler, McKinley High School, St. 

 Louis : ' An Experiment in Individual Instruc- 

 tion.' 



Geo. R. Dean, School of Mines, Rolla : ' A 

 Method of Teaching Elementary Geometry.' 



J. W. Withers, Yeatman High School, St. 

 Louis: 'The Teaching of Mathematics in the 

 High School.' 



F. C. TouTON, Central High School, Kansas 

 City : ' Some Developments in Elementary Al- 

 gebra.' 



Wm. a. Luby, Central High School, Kansas 

 City : ' The Teaching of Zero and Infinity in the 

 High School.' 



Abstracts of these papers will be published 

 in School Science and Mathematics. 



L. D. Ames. 



THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



The meeting of May 9 was held at the New 

 York Botanical Garden, with President Rusby 

 in the chair and 42 members and visitors 

 present. 



The meeting was devoted to the exhibition 



and discussion of the various forms of Ameri- 

 can violets. The discussion was oi}ened by 

 Dr. N. L. Britton, who spoke of the recent 

 specific differentiations of various authors. 

 lie was of the opinion that many of these 

 were doubtful and that while we had, perhaps, 

 twice as many good species as were known in 

 Gray's time, we only have about half as many 

 good species as have been described. The 

 speaker then gave a general sketch of the 

 group, noting that while they are preeminently 

 a north temperate cosmopolitan group they 

 extended into the southern hemisphere along 

 the highlands in both the orient and the Occi- 

 dent. There is only a single endemic and 

 one introduced species known from the West 

 Indies. Mexico furnishes, perhaps, half a 

 dozen species, and there are numerous species 

 in the highlands of South America. Our 

 violets fall naturally into two habit groups, 

 the acaulescent and the stemmed. A rather 

 common character is the occurrence of 

 cleistogamic flowers, which are borne on hori- 

 zontal or erect scapes according to the species. 

 The speaker passed the various species in re- 

 view, paying particular attention to those of 

 eastern North America. 



Stewardson Brown, of the Philadelphia 

 Botanical Club, was called upon to review Dr. 

 Britton's remarks. He said that in the main 

 he agreed with Dr. Britton's views of specific 

 validity. He called attention to a form from 

 the vicinity of Philadelphia which Stone re- 

 cently identified as Viola septemloha of Le- 

 Conte of the palmata group, and which the 

 speaker believed to be something different. 

 Attention was also called to Viola ohliqua, one 

 of the earliest and most abundant violets in 

 the Philadelphia region. The speaker de- 

 scribed the sagittaia-flnihriatula group as one 

 of the most integrated and little understood of 

 any of the groups of acaulescent blue violets. 

 Continuing the discussion, W. W. Eggleston 

 mentioned the occurrence of what he believed 

 to be a hybrid form. He also called attention 

 to President Brainerd's methods of studying 

 violets under cultivation and observing their 

 fruit characters. 

 ■ L. H. Lighthipe called attention to Viola 



