December 13, 190L] 



SCIENCE. 



935 



people is located in central Iowa, and another 

 in Oklahoma. Both bands practice similar cus- 

 toms, live in much the same way, wear the 

 same kind of dress, show similar physical types, 

 and, with the exception of certain differences 

 in idiom, and with the exception that the Iowa 

 band have a slower, more deliberate pronuncia- 

 tion, they speak the same tongue. The Iowa 

 band is the more conservative, and among them 

 the law of the clans still holds. The education 

 of the children is accomplished not by instruc- 

 tion but by imitation. The older boys imitate 

 the men, and the younger boys imitate the older 

 ones ; and similarly with the girls. The life of 

 the children is but a smaller edition of the life 

 of the older people. R. S. Woodworth, 



Secretary. 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLTJB. 



At the meeting of the Club on November 12, 

 the first paper was by F. S. Earle, on '^ Asco- 

 corticium in North America, ' correcting the cur- 

 rent nomenclature as to this genus, details of 

 which will shortly appear in print. 



The second paper, by Dr. Britton, ' Remarks 

 on the Flora of St. Kitts, British West Indies,' 

 was a sketch of his recent observations there, 

 with copious series of herbarium sheets, and of 

 fruits and other specimens in alcohol. Scarcely 

 any botanical work had been done on St. Kitts 

 previous to its exploration by Dr. Britton and 

 Mr. John F. Cowell last summer. In all they 

 collected about 3,500 herbarium specimens, 

 representing perhaps half of the flora. Many 

 tree-ferns were brought which are now making 

 good growth, and a great number of cacti which 

 are already on exhibit in the succulent house of 

 the New York Botanical Garden. 



Dr. Britton spoke in particular of the great 

 interest attaching to that purely tropical flora, 

 its aspect wholly dissimilar from that of our 

 Atlantic coast except only in the presence of the 

 introduced Horseweed, Leptilon. St. Kitts is a 

 volcanic mass, formed of a rugged central moun- 

 tain rising to about 4,000 feet, dissected by radi- 

 ating gorges which reach to the sea, and wholly 

 surrounded, by a fringe of arable land on the 

 shore. Steep ravine-sides 300 feet deep were 

 often completely covered with a prodigious 

 growth of tree-ferns ; there were four or five spe- 



cies in the ravines and one or two more in the 

 denser forests ; some reached a height of 50 feet ; 

 another was chiefly prostrate. A good number 

 of the filmy ferns were found ; perhaps ten ; and 

 many Oleichenias at high altitudes, where ferns 

 constitute the chief flora. No Equiseta were 

 found ; among the Lycopods, a species of Psilo- 

 tum on tree-trunks, some large and handsome 

 Selaginellas, and three Lycopodiums occur, of 

 which one conspicuous species was known to the 

 negroes as* ' Staghorn.' The grasses number 30 

 or more, the largest a Gynerium known as Wild 

 Cane or Dumb Cane. Guinea-grass, Panicum 

 maximum, is the only source of hay. Sedges were 

 few, for there is little standing water (except a 

 littoral salt-marsh) ; only a little pond near a 

 mountain summit at 3,500 feet, and a little lake 

 in the bottom of the old crater of the volcano, Mt. 

 Misery. Sclerias with saw-edged leaves were 

 quite abundant and form an obstacle on moun- 

 tain-trails. 



Aroids are very conspicuous, and in great 

 quantity, but only about eight species ; two of 

 Anthurium, climbing trees, two of Philodendron, 

 one with perforated leaves ; one Dieffenbachia ; 

 and a species known as Elephant's Ear, form- 

 ing great masses, with leaves sometimes five feet 

 long. 



Only two palms were found, one, a Baciris, 

 reaching 30 feet ; two Commelynas ; three or four 

 Tillandsias ; a Dioscorea with remarkable purple 

 leaf, now growing in the propagating house ; 

 about sixteen orchids ; and one gymnosperm, a 

 Podocarpus, abundant high up, and known as 

 'wild rosemary tree.' Among higher plants 

 the pepper peppers, the Papilionacese and allies, 

 the Euphorbia and Melastoma families, are numer- 

 ous. The Compositse are numerously present, 

 but chiefly as weeds ; a handsome new purple- 

 flowered Eupatorium was found on the top of 

 Mt. Misery, forming a shrub, and eight to ten 

 feet high. The alligator-pear, Persea Persea, is 

 quite abundant. There are four species of Ficiis, 

 a wild cherry, a Viola, etc. A raspberry oc- 

 curred in a mountain pasture at 2,000°. Among 

 the more peculiar were the Cecropia, with white 

 under surfaces of leaves, Marcgravia climbing 

 appressed to trees to the height of 50 feet, and 

 Hillia, interesting from its large lustrous white 

 flowers. 



