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PROCEEDINGS OF THE CLUB 



October 29, 1908 



The meeting was called to order at the New York Botanical 

 Garden at 3.30 P. M., Dr. M. A. Howe being asked to take the 

 chair. The minutes of the meeting of October 13 were read and 

 approved. Mr. Michael Levine was elected to membership. 

 Mr. Percy Wilson was elected secretary. 



A microscopic preparation of the red snow plant, Sphaevella 

 nivalis, collected this autumn on Cape York, was exhibited by 

 Dr. N. L. Britton, who received it from the secretary of the Peary 

 Arctic Club. Dr. Tracy E. Hazen gave a brief description of 

 this interesting plant and raised certain questions still unsolved 

 concerning it. 



The first subject on the published program was " A Recent 

 Collection of Mosses from Panama," by Mr. R. S. Williams. 

 The following synopsis of this paper was written for the secretary 

 by Mr. Williams : 



" For the time spent in the field this was much the smallest 

 collection of mosses ever made by the speaker. It may be ac- 

 counted for partly by the fact that most of the work was done in 

 the latter part of the dry season, namely, during the last week of 

 February, through March, and about three weeks of April, and 

 partly because of the low level, mostly under 300 feet elevation, 

 at which much of the collecting was done. 



" In the city of Panama are a number of fine old ruins more or 

 less overgrown with shrubs and smaller plants but not a single 

 species of moss was observed. On going to Penonome, some 

 hundred miles west of the Canal Zone on the Pacific coast, the 

 conditions were found to be much the same. One species of 

 moss, however, was found abundantly fruiting in a cultivated field 

 of cassava. This was Bryuiii coronatiivi Schwaegr., a world-wide 

 species of the tropics and occurring as far north as Florida. On 

 going a few miles back of the town, among the foothills and low 

 mountains, various mosses become not uncommon, growing 

 chiefly on trees, but even here very few species were obtained in 



