472 
‘A Simple Modification of the B.O.T. Form 
of Standard Cell.’ In this cell the usual 
construction is reversed, and the materials 
are introduced in the inverse order, namely, 
zine amalgam, sulpbate of zine crystals, 
mercurous sulphate paste, platinum wire. 
The cell is portable and free from diffusion- 
lag, and is much easier to make and more 
convenient to use than the H-form. Owing 
to its shape, which permits of immersion in 
a water-bath, it is more suitable than the 
H-form for very accurate work, in which an 
exact knowledge of the temperature of the 
cell is required. The same construction is 
also applied with equal facility to the cad- 
mium cell, but it appears that the latter 
cells are less consistent than the Clark cells 
at temperatures between 0° and 10° C. 
There was a general consensus of opinion 
that the meeting had been as well up 
to the average in the quality and quantity 
of the work submitted, as it had been thor- 
oughly enjoyable and successful from a so- 
cial point of view. With so many commu- 
nications to get through, it is to some extent 
inevitable that the discussions should be 
curtailed, but the authors of papers are 
themselves chiefly to blame in many cases 
if the discussion appears inadequate. It 
may be possible in future years to exact 
more stringently that the author should 
submit an intelligible abstract in advance, 
which might be obtainable at an early hour 
on the day on which the paper is read. In 
the few cases in which the printed abstracts 
are available they are frequently allowed to 
lie on the table, and were of no practical 
assistance to the discussion, as no one knew 
of their existence. It is to be hoped that 
the wide range of the work of Section A 
will not be allowed to detract from its use- 
fulness, and that the committee appointed 
to consider the question will succeed in de- 
vising some scheme of departmental organi- 
zation to mitigate the overcrowding of pa- 
pers in future. Huew L. CALLenDAR. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Von. VI. No. 143. 
THE BOTANY OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 
THERE are few opportunities when it be- 
comes possible for the botanists of America 
and Europe to exchange views and gain 
that personal knowledge of co-workers in 
which lies the real essence of acquaintance 
among scientific men, beyond those afforded 
by individual effort. Itis true that a large 
number of American botanists have prose- 
cuted more or less extended studies abroad, 
both in England and on the continent, and 
this number appears to be annually increas- 
ing. The majority, however, are denied 
such privileges, and for them it becomes a 
matter of first importance that occasions 
should arise when they are able to gain 
direct acquaintance with those who have 
been known to them in other ways for 
years. In 1884 the British Association for 
the Advancement of Science departed from 
its time-honored custom and held its first 
colonial meeting at Montreal. So rare an 
opportunity was eagerly taken advantage 
of by a large number of representative 
botanists from both sides of the Atlantic, 
and, although it wasimpossible at that time 
to fully measure the value of the results to 
be obtained, it was nevertheless felt that 
the work accomplished must be productive 
of great benefit, not only in a general ad- 
vance of botanical science, but in a far 
better understanding between the botanists 
of Europe and America. The lapse of years 
has fully justified this view, and when it 
was announced that the British Association 
intended once more to visit Canada, after a 
period of thirteen years, the prospect was 
generally hailed with delight by American 
botanists, who would gladly see these oppor- 
tunities for scientific conference become 
more frequent. 
The sixty-seventh annual meeting of the 
British Association, recently closed at 
Toronto, will be remembered as a notable 
one in the history of botanical progress on 
this side of the Atlantic. The great ac- 
