Febeuaby 28, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



347 



b 



" Notes on Moss," by Miss Towle, Edmunds 

 High Scliool. 



" Seven Giant Puflballs," by Mrs. Lord, Bur- 

 lington. 



" Questions concerning Weed Distribution," by 

 L. C. C00I5:, University of Vermont. 



" The Fruits of some Shrubs and Trees of Ver- 

 mont," by F. V. Rand, University of Vermont. 



" Local Observations on Effect of Altitude on 

 Vegetation," by Joseph A. Chapin, Middlesex. 



" The Botrychiums of Dorset," by Allan Bourn, 

 Yonlcers, N. Y. 



" Oxalis Brittonw at Pownal," by Dr. Tracy 

 Hazen, New York. 



" Discovery of the Water Chiclcweed in Ver- 

 mont," by Richard W. Woodward, Yantic, Conn. 



" The Late Alphonso Wood," by Miss Alice E. 

 Bacon, Bradford. 



" The Fernery," by Miss Elizabeth Billings, 

 Woodstock. 



" Reproduction in Bread Mold," by L. E. Whit- 

 comb, Edmunds High School. 



" A New Station for the Green Dragon," by 

 Geo. L. Kirk, Rutland. 



" Soil Acidity in Relation to Flora," by H. A. 

 Edson, University of Vermont. 



" Some Rare Plants on Mount Horrid," by D. 

 L. Dutton, Brandon. 



" A Bacterial Rot of the Muskmelon," by N. J. 

 Giddings, University of Vermont. 



" A Trip to Mount Mitchell," by W. W. Eggles- 

 ton, Rutland. 



" Mount Washington " ( illustrated with lan- 

 tern), by John W. Ritchie, Jr., Boston. 



Professor M. L. Pernald, Gray Herbarium, 

 Harvard University, was the gnest of the club 

 and delivered a public lecture on " The Flora 

 of the Shiekshock Mountains and the Gaspe 

 Coast " (illustrated with lantern) . 



The following were elected officers for the 

 ensuing year: 



President — Ezra Brainerd, Middlebury College. 

 Vice-president — Cyrus G. Pringle, University of 

 Vermont. 



Secretary — L. R. Jones, University of Vermont. 

 Treasurer — Mrs. N. F. Flynn, Burlington. 



The next meeting will be in conjunction 

 with the Federation of New England Natural 

 History Societies at Mt. Washington about 

 July first. 



The club has an active membership of 

 nearly 200 and publishes an annual bulletin, 



of which the third number will appear in 

 April. L. E. Jones, 



Secretary 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



At the 196th meeting of the Society, held 

 at the Cosmos Club, on Wednesday evening, 

 November 27, 1907, under informal communi- 

 cations, Mr. Willis T. Lee announced the dis- 

 covery of fossils in the red beds of the foot- 

 hills region of New Mexico. Collections were 

 made near Eowe, a station of the Atchison, 

 Topeka and Santa Fe Eailway in the Pecos 

 Valley and also at a point about five miles 

 northwest of Las Vegas, near the base of the 

 red sediments which are here 5,000 feet or 

 more in thickness. The fossils have been 

 identified by G. H. Girty, of the United States 

 Geological Survey, and found to belong to the 

 fauna characteristic of the lower group of the 

 Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) series of cen- 

 tral New Mexico, now known as the Magda- 

 lena group. These collections indicate that a 

 part, at least, of the so-called " Permo-Triassic 

 Eed Beds " of the eastern Eocky Mountains 

 are of Pennsylvanian age. 



Professor G. D. Harris, of Cornell Uni- 

 versity, presented informally a summary of 

 the results of his investigations of the salt 

 domes of Louisiana and Texas. The Mis- 

 sissippi embaymiCnt is a huge "pitching 

 trough" pitching southward, and in the course 

 of its development, differential uplift or 

 settling of one of the planes has given rise to 

 lines of weakness in two directions, northeast- 

 southwest and northwest-southeast. The 

 points of intersection of such lines generally 

 occur at sharp anticlines and there saturated 

 salt solutions could easily escape upwards into 

 the overlying later formations. But salt 

 waters, if saturated at high temperatures, pre- 

 cipitate, on cooling, a portion of their dis- 

 solved salt, and the force which can be exerted 

 by crystallizing salt is of about the same order 

 of magnitude as its ultimate strength. On 

 testing it was found that a 4-inch cube of salt 

 withstands a pressure of 50,000 pounds with- 

 out even cracking, and the inference is there- 

 fore warranted that the crystallizing salt can 

 lift at least 3,000 feet of Tertiary and Quater- 



