14 



grow together from the same crevices of rock, they respond to 

 rain with remarkable quickness. In the dry season when every- 

 thing else is seemingly dead, if a rain should occur, their coiled 

 fronds quickly become bright green, and well expanded, though 

 perhaps curled again into little balls within a few days. 



Edward S. Burgess, 



Secretary. 

 Wednesday, November 26, 1902 



The meeting was held at 3:30 p. m., at the New York Botan- 

 ical Garden ; Dr. H. H. Rusby in the chair. 



Dr. MacDougal spoke on some examples of propagation by 

 bulbils. Two kinds of bulbils were spoken of, namely, those 

 which morphologically are stems, and those which morphologi- 

 cally are roots. He exhibited specimens of Dioscorea villosa 

 which bore in the axils of the leaves large bodies described as 

 bulbils of the first sort, and Ranunculus Ficaria and Globba Schoni- 

 burgkii which had similarly placed bodies, much smaller, however, 

 and morphologically roots. In any case the bulbils reproduce the 

 plant by germinating after falling to the ground. Drawings of 

 Lysimachia tcrrestris were shown that represented the changes 

 effected in the habit of the plant brought about by being grown 

 in water. 



A specimen of the so-called "wood-rose" of Guatemala was 

 also exhibited by Dr. MacDougal. This curious malformation 

 is a hypertrophy of a branch of some Leguminous tree or shrub 

 and is caused by an unknown species of LorantJius. 



Dr. N. L. Britton made remarks on the plant conditions and 

 the general plant formations of the island of St. Kitts, British 

 West Indies. 



The meeting then adjourned and the members of the Club 

 under Dr. Britton's guidance visited the greenhouses and ex- 

 amined some of the plants that have recently been brought by 



the Botanical Garden from St. Kitts. 



W. A. Cannon, 



Secretary pro tan. 



NEWS ITEMS 



Professor J. C. Arthur, of Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, 



is spending a month at the New York Botanical Garden. 



