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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 520. 



27, 28. President, Professor E. H. Chittenden, 

 Yale University; secretary. Professor Lafayette 

 B. Mendel, New Haven. 



The Association of American Anatomists. De- 

 cember 26, 27, 28. President, Professor Charles 

 S. Minot, Harvard Medical School; secretary. 

 Professor G. Carl Huber, 333 East Ann St., Ann 

 Arbor, Mich. 



American Folk-Lore Society. 



The American Anthropological Association. — 

 December 27-Jan. 2. President, Dr. W J McGee, 

 Washington; secretary. Dr. Geo. Grant MacCurdy, 

 Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 



The American Psychological Association. — De- 

 cember 28, 29. President, Professor William 

 James, Harvard University; secretary. Professor 

 Livingston Farrand, Columbia University, New 

 York City. 



The American Philosophical Association. — De- 

 cember 28, 29, 30. President, Professor George T. 

 Ladd, Yale University; secretary, Professor H. N. 

 Gardiner, Northampton, Mass. 



The Sigma Xi Honorary Scientific Society. — 

 President, Professor S. W. Williston, University 

 of Chicago; secretary. Professor Edwin S. Craw- 

 ley, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 



THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 391st regular meeting was held Satur- 

 day evening, November 19, 1904. In response 

 to the call for brief notes, B. W. Evermann 

 spoke of the abundance of waterfowl at Lake 

 Maxinkuckee, Ind., on or about November 5, 

 1904. At that time there were estimated to 

 be on the lake 10,000 coots, 2,500 ducks, in- 

 cluding at least 500 canvas backs, 100 to 125 

 brant and 36 swans. 



Dr. E. L. Greene presented a paper entitled 

 ' A Chapter in the Evolution of Generic 

 Nomenclature.' A retrospect over the rise, 

 gradual prevalence and subsequent exclusion 

 from nomenclature of generic names in bot- 

 any formed by the mere adding of oides to 

 the name of an already established genus. 

 For example, the sixteenth century name for 

 the genus Carex was Cyperoides, for Festuca 

 it was Bromoides, for Phaca, Astragaloides ; 

 and in the course of the half-century pre- 

 ceding the year 1753 there were taxonomists 

 of excellent standing, like Vaillant, Micheli 

 and Scheuchzer, with whom it seemed to be 

 the rule to construct new generic names in 

 this cheap and easy fashion. There were 

 something like one hundred and fifty or, per- 



haps, nearer two hundred of these oides names 

 prevalent in about the year 1740. At this 

 juncture Linnfeus, as if feeling that this kind 

 of name-making was already carried ad nau- 

 seum, proposed in the ' Philosophia Botanica ' 

 that all oides names be rejected from plant 

 nomenclature ; and in both his ' Genera ' and 

 ' Species ' he boldly carried the proposal into 

 effect. In this he must have had the full sym- 

 pathy of almost the whole body of the botan- 

 ists of that time, for they followed his lead 

 promptly. Only Adanson, whose feeling for 

 Linnseus was bitter, had the hardihood to re- 

 store a few of the discredited oides names. 

 From 1753 to 1893, not one of the great 

 makers of modern botany adopted an oides 

 name. 



Unfortunately, by a too ready following of 

 Dr. Otto Kuntze, a few oides names, after 

 their long -banishment from all botany, have 

 reappeared in American books. In such books 

 Nicandra has given place to the earlier Phy- 

 saloides, N emopanthes to Ilicoides, Corydalis 

 to Capnoides, and Luzula to Juncotdes. And 

 so there has begun what seems to be the in- 

 auguration of another epoch of this kind of 

 degeneracy in nomenclature. For if Junc- 

 oides be permitted to stand in place of Luzula, 

 other such onomastic deformities will be justi- 

 fied, and what is worse, novices will be found 

 who will take pride in coining new generic 

 names on that very model long ago discredit- 

 ed, and these names will have to be admitted 

 as valid. 



In a communication entitled ' A New Seed- 

 bearing Fern,' David White laid before the 

 society specimens and drawings of the sterile 

 fronds and seeds of a new species of Anei- 

 mites, A. fertilis, from the lower Pottsville 

 of southern West Virginia. The genus Anei- 

 mites, better known under the name Adian- 

 tiies, constitutes the third group of filicoid 

 plants to reveal a seed fructification. It is, 

 therefore, to be referred to the ' Cycadofilices ' 

 (Pteridospermese), though on account of its 

 typically filicate fronds its fern nature, in the 

 absence of all knowledge respecting its fructi- 

 fication, has hitherto been unquestioned. 

 Wilfred H. Osgood, 



Secretary. 



