850 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 361. 



THE TOEREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



At the meeting of the Club on October 8 the 

 scientific program consisted of informal reports 

 of summer's work, including reports from Dr. 

 Rydberg, of his visit to Sweden and Norway ; 

 from Mr. Murrill, of his attendance on the 

 Botanical Congress at Geneva ; from Mrs. Har- 

 ris of work among the lichens in the Adiron- 

 dacks ; and from Mrs. Britton, of work among 

 the mosses there and in the Catskills, with 

 advance notes reporting Dr. Britton's collec- 

 tion in the West Indies. Dr. Underwood spoke 

 of his collecting in Porto Rico, examining 

 thoroughly the eastern part of the island dur- 

 ing five weeks spent there. He collected over 

 1,000 numbers of dried plants and sent back a 

 large number of cacti now growing in the 

 Botanical Garden. He was afterward in the 

 Berkshire Hills for two weeks, then attended 

 the A. A. A. S. meeting at Denver, Colorado, 

 and spent some time in botanical work through- 

 out many parts of that State, collecting about 

 600 numbers of the fall flora, particularly about 

 Ouray and Pikes Peak. 



The secretary reported extension of range of 

 Aster curvescens by his discovery of its growth 

 in quantity in the southern Berkshire Hills. 



Dr. MacDougal reported his work in Montana 

 where he aided in maintaining a summer labora- 

 tory for four weeks at Big Fork, at the north end 

 of Flathead L. , and entertained Dr. H. C. Cowles 

 and twenty students of the University of Chi- 

 cago. Dr. MacDougal then joined a collecting 

 party exploring a part of northern Montana not 

 known to have been before visited by a botanist, 

 except as Canby gave it a flying trip in 1884. Dr. 

 MacDougal collected about 900 flowering plants. 

 Some days of every week the work was among 

 snow and ice, with alpine flora, lakes a mile 

 long of snow-water, chiefly without outlet and 

 without life, as they freeze solidly to the bottom. 

 He exhibited a panoramic view of ths moun- 

 tains seen across Flathead L., with numerous 

 photographs showing the technique of collect- 

 ing and camp equipment. 



Dr. M. A. Howe reported on his eleven weeks' 

 collecting trip for marine algae in Nova Scotia 

 and Newfoundland. He made about ten 

 principal stays of a week each, at Yarmouth, 

 Digby, Grand Pre; at Pictou, a station for 



Fucus serratus, and where he obtained it in 

 quantity ; at Cape Breton ; on the south end of 

 Newfoundland, the richest locality in the 

 larger kelps. There and along the south and 

 east coast of Newfoundland is almost treeless, 

 as is generally reputed, but firewood and lum- 

 ber are obtainable 20 miles inland, and the west 

 shore is forested with spruce, fir and tamarack, 

 with yellow and white birch. Journeying 

 east through the practically uninhabited in- 

 terior, a thin coniferous forest was met, espe- 

 cially all around the numerous lakes. Where 

 fires had been through it, for 20 or 30 miles, all 

 was a flaming purple of fire-weed {Epilohium). 



Dr. Howe mentioned the current names for 

 the three native berries eaten so commonly 

 there, squashberry for Viburnum pauciflorum; 

 baked apple berry for Bubus chamsemorus ; and 

 partridge berry for Vaccinium vitis-idsea, called 

 Swedish cranberry in parts of the U. S. where 

 imported from Scandinavia. Dr. Howe re- 

 mained four weeks in Newfoundland, and was 

 aftei'ward at Halifax Harbor, N. S., where 

 Harvey, author of the Nereis, had made impor- 

 tant collections. 



Dr. R. M. Harper reported collecting again 

 in Georgia, with about 500 numbers, visiting 

 many new localities, traveling about 1,400 miles 

 by rail, and doing much work on plant-distri- 

 bution. He spoke particularly of the remark- 

 able flora of the sandhills in Bulloch Co., 

 resembling the ' scrub ' flora in Florida. Photo- 

 graphs of these and other parts visited were 

 shown. Along shady banks of the Chattahoo- 

 chee River, some 50 miles from Columbus, he 

 found some southern species, reaching their 

 northern limit. In the Pine Mountains, south- 

 ernmost eastern extension of the Appalachians, 

 he found on the northern slopes an interesting 

 mixture of Southern and Northern species. The 

 southern slopes are covered with the long- 

 leaved pine, with the flora characteristic of the 

 pine barrens of the southern coastal plain. 

 Among the interesting plants collected by Mr. 

 Harper were Elliottia and, at Thomasville, Ga., 

 Nymph sea orbiculata. 



Brief remarks followed regarding fall blossom- 

 ing and foliation iu New York City, and Dr. 

 Underwood exhibited afresh specimen of Botry- 

 chium dissectum. It was noted by Mrs. Britton 



