175 



FIELD TRIPS OF THE CLUB 



Trip of April 21 to the Bartlett Tree Research 

 Laboratories 



In spite of the extremely inclement weather, several hardy mem- 

 bers of the Club and their guests enjoyed an interesting and profit- 

 able day at the Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories, where Dr. 

 Stanley W. Bromley, assistant entomologist of the laboratories' 

 stafif, was our genial host and guide. Most of the time was spent 

 indoors in an examination of hundreds of specimens of local 

 insects in all stages and a collection of bark, limbs, and twigs show- 

 ing the various types of injury by different insects to native and 

 cultivated trees and shrubs. Dr. Bromley answered a multitude 

 of questions on methods of insect pest and fungous disease con- 

 trol and explained the work which has been done on such important 

 diseases as the chestnut blight and Dutch elm disease, including 

 a fascinating exposition of the spread of the latter as explained by 

 local air currents which carry the disease-bearing beetles in the 

 same manner as they were made to carry experimental balloons. 

 A most valuable and beautiful collection of paper-thin sections of 

 the wood of several hundred trees and shrubs was examined. 

 Dr. Bromley illustrated the efifects of the 1939 hurricane in this 

 area and allowed us to examine branches taken from oak trees 

 after the hurricane, on which the leaves had actually been knotted 

 together ! This curious and at first almost unbelievable eflfect had 

 been produced by the wind twirling the leaves so continuously 

 that only the fibro-vascular bundles were left in the petioles. The 

 large and practically intact blades were then wrapped about each 

 other by the wind, causing the fibrous "petioles" in some cases 

 actually to become braided or knotted. 



Harold N. Moldenke 



Trip of April 28 to Bush kill Falls, Pa. 



Some forty members and guests of the Torrey Botanical Club 

 met on the morning of April 28 at Bushkill Falls, Pa., to study 

 the bryophytes of that area. When the group assembled, however, 

 it was evident that with the help of the specialists who had come, 

 the observations would not have to be limited to these plants. All of 

 us profited greatly through the generous cooperation of the Chair- 

 man of the Field Committee, Dr. Small, and of Mr. Nearing. Dr. 



