84 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 185. 



sentatives of which feed upon mosses. The only- 

 fossil moss heretofore recorded from the United 

 States is Lesquereus's Eypnum Haydeni, now 

 believed to be instead a species of Lycopodium. 

 Fragments from the Pleistocene have been re- 

 ported from Canada. The species described 

 this evening is probably the first distinct Ameri- 

 can species. Thirty or more foreign fossil miisci 

 have been described, many of them members of 

 Mypnum, many of them of Harpidium and of 

 Sphagnum. To this genus Sphagnum belongs 

 the only fossil moss as yet known in fruit, a 

 Tertiary specimen preserved in brown iron ore. 



Discussion followed regarding the reasons for 

 the rarity of moss fossils, Dr. Underwood, Dr. 

 Britton, Mrs. Britton and the Secretary partici- 

 pating. Dr. Hollick said that, besides the nega- 

 tive reasons presented by lack of extensive 

 search and by the small size of the plant in ques- 

 tion, an important reason for the scarcity of 

 moss-remains is the fact that mosses do not shed 

 their leaves. Small plant-remains in Carbon" 

 iferous rocks occur not in place, but in debris. 

 Were moss-leaves deciduous there would have 

 been greater chance of their accumulation and 

 preservation in such masses of driftage. 



The second paper, by Dr. L. M. Underwood, 

 was entitled ' The Species of Botrychium of 

 the B. ternaium Group.' The paper, which 

 will soon be published, was accompanied by 

 numerous specimens and followed by discussion 

 at length of the principal Eastern representa- 

 tives, especially of B. intermedium. 



Mrs. Britton followed with remarks on the 

 Muhlenberg collection of mosses recently trans- 

 ferred from the Philosophical Society of Phila- 

 adelphia to the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Sciences. They are preserved exactly as 

 Muhlenberg left them, even to the replacing of 

 a knothole. The plants are wrapped in leaves 

 torn from Testaments printed in Low Dutch. 

 With each specimen is preserved the number 

 he had originally given it, the number he had 

 used in sending it to Hedwig, and the name 

 given it by Hedwig. 



The bulk of Muhlenberg's ferns went to 

 Willdenow at Berlin. 



Among the collections at the Academy of 

 Sciences in Philadelphia, besides those of 

 Schweinitz, Sullivant, Nuttall and Darlington, 



is that of Pursh, whose herbarium is still a series 

 of scattered sheets, neither mounted nor classi- 

 fied, but with labels supplied in his own hand. 

 Dr. Britton announced the recent purchase, 

 by the N. Y. Botanic Garden, of the herbarium 

 and botanical collections of Professor Lewis R. 

 Gibbs, of Charleston, S. C, through his 

 daughter. Miss Maria R. Gibbs. The her- 

 barium of Elliott is in bad preservation and 

 much of it gone entirely. The Gibbs her- 

 barium is deemed of special value as illustrative 

 of Elliott's plants. 



Edward S. Buegess, 



Secretary, 



ENGELMANN BOTANICAL CLUB. 



The Club met on June 23d at the St. Louis 

 Medical College, fourteen members present. 



Mr. Walter Kirchner read a paper on fossil 

 plants of Florissant, Colorado, and exhibited a 

 number of specimens, several of them being 

 new species. 



Mr. J. B. S. Norton made a report of the 

 field meet held at Cliff Cave, six miles south of 

 St. Louis, on June 4th. The locality was a 

 wooded ravine with limestone cliffs next the 

 river and some upland woods. The woods may 

 be characterized by Hydrophyllum Canadense, 

 Aralia quiquefolia and Carex latifolia. The char- 

 acter of the limestone out-crop formation may 

 be represented by Celtis pumila, Dodecatheon 

 media, Agave Virginica, Tecoma radicans, the 

 latter covering the cliffs. Specimens of the 

 Agave with red spotted leaves very close to var. 

 tigrina, and compound leaves of Vitia cinerea, 

 were exhibited. 



J. B. S. NOETON, 



Acting Secretary. 



NEW BOOKS. 



Biological Lectures Delivered at the Marine Bio- 

 logical Laboratory of W^oods Soil, 1896-7. 

 Boston, Ginn & Co. 1898. Pp. 242. 



The Play of Animals. Kael Geoos. Trans- 

 lated by Elizabeth L. Baldwin. New 

 York, D. Appleton & Co. Pp. xxvi+341. 

 S1.75. 



The Doctrine of Energy. B. L. L. London, 

 Kegan, Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd. 

 1898. Pp. 108. 2s. 6d. 



