33 



A letter was read from Professor E. O. Hovey, recording sec- 

 retary of the Academy, asking the attention of the club to a reso- 

 lution of the Academy in which the affiliated societies are invited 

 to recommend suitable lectures to be given under the auspices of, 

 and at the expense of the Academy. Dr. Southwick moved that 

 President Rusby be invited, on behalf of the Club, to deliver a 

 lecture under the conditions suggested, and that notice of this be 

 sent to the recording secretary of the. Academy. The motion was 

 put by the acting secretary and unanimously adopted. In thank- 

 ing the Club for the honor Dr. Rusby referred to the interest now 

 displayed in the matter of the purity of commercial drugs in con- 

 nection with the Pure Food Law, and stated that the proposed 

 lecture, if given, would be upon this topic. 



The following scientific program was presented : 



" Dictionaries and their Relation to Biology," by Charles Louis 

 Pollard. 



The speaker referred to the fact that a large part of the incre- 

 ment in our language in recent years has consisted of scientific 

 terms, including new Latin classificatory names, biological de- 

 scriptive words and phrases, and vernacular names. In spite of 

 this there is a very general lack of interest among working scien- 

 tists in the average dictionary, and it is not the indispensable 

 reference book that it should be. The reasons for this are to 

 be sought in the attitude of the publishers toward the style of 

 definitions, the effort to avoid undue technicality often resulting 

 in Scientific inaccuracy. Obsolete words and meanings are fre- 

 quently given too great prominence and are not properly differ- 

 entiated from those in current usage. There is also a tendency 

 to magnify the importance of so-called popular names, many of 

 which are coined by the writers of manuals and are not used 

 elsewhere. 



The general discussion which followed brought out the fact that 

 the dictionary, in spite of its defects, contains much information 

 difficult to obtain from other sources, but that it is very generally 

 at variance with usage among botanists in the matter of pro- 

 nunciation. 



" Notes on the Pine-barrens of Long Island," by Roland 

 M. Harper : 



