904 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 649 



vapor. The entrance of this material into 

 drains and sewers where gasoline and soap are 

 use.d for washing, as in garrages and fac- 

 tories, is sufficient to account for the libera- 

 tion of much combustible vapor and hence, 

 perhaps, for explosions. Such material sepa- 

 rates slowly and is difficult to trap. 



Professor Breneman also read two ' labora- 

 tory notes,' one relating to the magnetic 

 quality of magnetic (iron) oxide in the hy- 

 drated state, and one upon the use of ether in 

 the ferric sulphoeyanate test. 



C. M. Joyce, 



Secretary 



THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 



The club was called to order on February 

 27, 190Y, at 3 :30 p.m., at the Museum Building 

 of the New Tork Botanical Garden, with Dr. 

 William A. Murrill in the chair. Twenty-one 

 persons were present. 



The following scientific program was pre- 

 sented: 



Tubular Glands in the Corn Embryo: C. 



Stuart Gager. 



The literature dealing with the transforma- 

 tion of starch to sugar in the corn grain 

 during germination was first briefly reviewed, 

 and its bearing on the structural anomaly 

 subsequently described was pointed out. This 

 anomaly consisted of invaginations of the 

 glandular epithelium of the scutellum into the 

 tissue of the latter, in such a way as to form 

 true glands of the tubular and subracemose 

 type. 



The significance of these glands, as in har- 

 mony with the theory that the scutellar 

 epithelium is principally an organ of secre- 

 tion, was also indicated. The paper was illus- 

 trated by microscopic preparations and photo- 

 micrographs, and will be published in full in 

 the Bulletin of the club for March, 1907. 



A brief discussion followed. 



Explorations in Southern Florida: John K. 



Small. 



The exploration was confined to the larger 

 group of islands lying between Miami and 

 Camps Longview and Jackson, and to a 

 wholly unexplored section of the everglades 



lying between the present terminus of the 

 Florida East Coast Railway and Key Largo, 

 including a portion of Cross Key. This latter 

 island, together with a parallel and almost 

 similar formation, constitutes the only natural 

 and approximately complete land-connection 

 between the Florida Keys and the mainland 

 of the peninsula. The chain of everglade 

 keys is a miniature of the Florida Keys, both 

 in its crescent shape and its flora, and also of 

 the West Indies in the character of its vege- 

 tation. It is surrounded by the everglades, 

 except where the upper islands touch Biscayne 

 Bay at points from Miami to Cutler. Before 

 these islands were elevated to their present 

 altitude, they were probably surrounded by a 

 shallow sea, just as the Florida Keys are at 

 the present time. This being the case, the 

 tropical American flora now inhabiting them 

 may easily be accounted for. After sufficient 

 elevation had taken place, the surrounding 

 sea was transformed into the vast spring now 

 known as the everglades. Conditions becom- 

 ing favorable, the plants of the flora of north- 

 ern peninsular Florida advanced southward 

 and naturally took complete possession of the 

 area that was formerly the sea, thus surround- 

 ing and isolating the wholly different flora 

 of the islands. In fact, the two floras are so 

 sharply delimited that one can often stand 

 with one foot on plants characteristic of the- 

 high northern regions and the other on plants 

 restricted to the tropics. It is not an uncom- 

 mon experience to see colonies of plants com- 

 mon in Canada, such as the arrowarum 

 (Peltandra), the lizard's tail (Saururus) and 

 the ground-nut (Apios), growing side by side 

 with tropical palms, cycads, orchids and 

 bromeliads. 



The total area of these islands is perhaps 

 about one hundred and fifty square miles. 

 Those that have been explored have yielded' 

 between five and six hundred species of native 

 flowering plants, surely a very large number 

 considering the fact that the solid rock is 

 exposed everywhere and that soil in the ordi- 

 nary sense of the word does not occur there. 

 The close relationship of this flora to that of 

 the West Indies is now established by the fact 

 that considerably more than one half of thfr 



