JANTJAEY 13, 1911] 



SCIUNCE 



77 



reflector of the Lick Observatory. Spectrum on 

 the stained plate was compared with spectra on 

 ordinaiy plates. The spectrum of central star 

 is continuous and like spectra of central star of 

 planetary nebulse. The spectrum of central star 

 is relatively stronger in ultra-violet light than 

 the bluest of the Orion type of stars. The dis- 

 tribution of elements in the nebulous ring are 

 probably not identical. 



14. The conclusions reached in the paper by 

 Percival Lowell are: That parallaxes beyond 

 0".067 are too small to be trustworthy, and that 

 the masses of those stars for which alone we 

 have dependable data are, in the mean, almost 

 exactly the same as that of the sun. 



The following members of Section A were 

 elected as fellows: M. J. Babb, E. W. Bass. H. i. 

 Benedict, G. D. Birkhofl', A. B. Chaee, Arnold 

 Dresden, Eric Doolittle, J. C. Duncan, T. C. Esty, 

 Max Fischer, G. W. Hartweil, H. G. Keppel, 

 A. S. Hawkesworth, T. H. Hildebrandt, .^. J. 

 Lennes, W. H. Maltbie, Max Mason, Helen A. 

 Merrill, E. J. Miles, A. B. Pierce, A. R. Schweitzer, 

 P. H. Seares, Mary E. Sinclair, Clara E. Smith, 

 E. R. Smith, A. W. Stamper, A. L. Underhill, C. 

 E. Van Ostrand, F. W. Very, W. D. A. Westfall, 

 E. J. Wilczynski, F. B. Williams, T. W. D. 

 Worthen, E. I. Yowell. The section elected Presi- 

 dent E. 0. Lovett member of the council. President 

 C. S. Howe member of the sectional committee, 

 and Dean H. T. Eddy member of the general 

 committee. On recommendation of the sectional 

 committee Professor E. B. Frost, director of the 

 Yerkes Observatory, was elected chairman of the 

 section. 



G. A. MiLLEB, 



Secretary of Section A 

 Univeesitt of Illinois 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE BOTANICAL SOCIETT OF WASHINGTON 



The 68th regular meeting of the society was 

 held at the Cosmos Club, Friday, December 16, 

 1910, at eight o'clock p.m. President W. J. Spill- 

 man presided. Thirty members were in attend- 

 ance. H. A. Edson, E. P. Humbert, F. J. Prit- 

 chard and W. H. Long were admitted to mem- 

 bership. 



The following papers were read: 

 Propagation of Sea Island Cotton: Dr. W. H. 



Evans. 



An account was given of the work of the 

 Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station with 



cotton, especial attention being called to the 

 vegetative propagation of the cotton plant. At 

 the Hawaii Station experiments with Sea Island 

 and Caravonica cottons have been in progress for 

 several years, and it has been found advantageous 

 to grow them as perennial crops, pruning the 

 plants every year, the Sea Island to about sis or 

 eight inches of the previous year's growth and 

 the Caravonica about one half the growth of the 

 season preceding. After pruning, the plants start 

 growth rapidly and within five months are pro- 

 ducing squares. By paying attention to the time 

 of pruning, harvesting can be regulated to come 

 at a time when picking can be most economically 

 done. In the experiments described above, the 

 prunings have been taken as cuttings, rooted, and 

 then set into the field. In this way a number of 

 superior strains have been propagated without 

 the possibility of crossing. As the older plants 

 yield fifty to one hundred cuttings at a pruning 

 and practically all root quickly, this is not as 

 slow a method of propagating as would be at first 

 thought. 



In addition to increasing cotton by cuttings, it 

 has been found possible to propagate it by bud- 

 ding and grafting, and a considerable number of 

 plants have been successfully top-worked with 

 especially fine strains of cotton. 

 Pecan Scab: M. B. Waite. 



The pecan, being a native forest tree, is not as 

 subject to destructive outbreaks of fungous dis- 

 eases as other cultivated nuts and fruits. It is 

 native of the Mississippi Valley as far north as 

 Iowa and central Illinois, and extends eastward 

 into Alabama and westward into Texas. It is 

 mainly planted in commercial orchards through- 

 out the cotton belt, but particularly in the dis- 

 trict where sugar cane can be cultivated. It is 

 not expected, therefore, that the pecan should 

 have such destructive diseases as the bacterial 

 blight of the English walnut, pear-blight of the 

 pear and apple, yellows of the peach tree, or the 

 black-rot, downy mildew or piiylloxera of the 

 European grape when the latter is grown in the 

 eastern United States. 



There is an apparent exception to this in the 

 pecan scab, caused by the fungus Fusicladium 

 effusum Winter. This exception comes about 

 through the transfer of seedlings and horticul- 

 tural varieties, such as San Saba and Sovereign 

 which originated on the western limit of the 

 pecan in Texas, wher« the summers are dry, to 

 the humid conditions of the gulf coast states and 

 the Carolinas. The Texas group of varieties are 



