36 
any previous session, and the attendance at the 
meetings had averaged about fifty, also an in- 
crease over previous records. The Section was 
then adjourned until October. 
DURAND WOODMAN, 
Secretary. 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB, MAY 11. 
Dr. N. L. Brirron presided in absence of 
the President. Three new members were elec- 
ted. Three successful field-meetings were re- 
ported. Resolutions were adopted commem- 
orative of Dr. Emily L. Gregory, the late hon- 
ored professor of botany at Barnard College, 
an active worker in the Club. Announcement 
was made of the recent gift, by President Low 
to the botanical department of Columbia, of a 
valuable set of water-color plates prepared by 
the late lamented Wm. Hamilton Gibson, in 
illustration of his projected work on mush- 
rooms. 
The paper of the evening followed, by Mr. 
Marshall A. Howe, entitled ‘A Preliminary 
Comparison of the Hepatic Flora of California 
with that of Europe and of the eastern United 
States.”’ 
The total number of Californian species now 
known is 77, of which 45 occur in the Mediter- 
ranean region, but only 37 in the Gray-Manual 
region of the United States. 
It was shown that the hepatic flora of Cali- 
fornia has more in common with that of north- 
ern and central Europe than with that of the 
eastern United States, and is still more allied 
to that of the Mediterranean region. In par- 
ticular, species of Asterella and Riccia are better 
developed in California and southern Europe 
than in the eastern United States. 
The apparent absence in California of Baz- 
zania and Mylia, which are especially character- 
- istic of medial and boreal regions, serves to 
heighten the similarity to southern Europe. 
The paper was followed by exhibit of photo- 
micrographs of sections of Cryptomitrium, 
illustrating the development of the archegonia. 
In the discussion following, Professor Under- 
wood said that the Hepatic species are most 
numerous in the Amazon region, the eastern 
slope of the Andes, and in Java. Insular 
tropical regions haye furnished many where 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S Vou. VI. No. 131. 
examined, as Cuba and Jamaica. Quite a num- 
ber are peculiar to Australia. New Zealand is 
well supplied with species. Many have been 
recently collected in Africa, and have been 
described by Herr Stephani, of Leipsic, whose 
industry has doubled the number of described 
Hepatic. Asa whole, the maximum develop- 
ment of the Hepatic is tropical, though some 
genera and certain groups within genera are 
wholly high-temperate or subarctic. 
Professor Britton, remarking the indications 
of circumboreal and circumtropical distribution 
of certain species, referred to the argument for 
an equatorial distribution of flowering plants 
and of ferns, and queried if there were any- 
thing corresponding among Hepatice. He ex- 
pressed the belief that it is the immediate 
environment which at present exerts the prin- 
cipal influence on distribution, whatever the 
original cause or mode of distribution may have 
been. 
Professor Underwood referred to the influence 
of the Gulf Stream in permitting the existence 
of the subtropical genus Lejeunia on the coast 
of Ireland, a genus not elsewhere found in 
Europe. Comparing the Hepatic of Florida, 
they are only in part known ; a few species are 
in common with the Appalachian flora; most 
of the Florida Hepatics are close-creeping forms 
found on bark, as Frullania and Lejeunia, hay- 
ing water-sacs on their leaves as aids in resisting 
drought. Some tropical Marchantiacee occur 
in Florida, and also, especially, species of 
Riecia and Anthoceros. Thallocarpus is known 
only from Florida and South Carolina. 
EDWARD 8. BURGESS, 
Secretary. 
NEW BOOKS. 
Formation de la Nation Francaise. GABRIEL DE 
Morvinuer. Paris, Alean. 1897. Pp. iv 
+ 336. 6 Fr. 
Introduction to the,;Study of Economics. CHARLES 
JESSE BuLLocK. New York, Chicago and 
Philadelphia, Silver, Burdett & Co. 1897. 
Pp. 511. $1.28. 
Grundprobleme der Naturwissenschaft. ADOLF 
WAGNER. Berlin, Gebriider Borntraeger. 
1897. Pp. vi + 255. 
