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Tuesday, February io, 1903 



The meeting was held at the College of Pharmacy ; in the 

 absence of the President and Vice-Presidents, Dr. Lighthipe 

 was called to the chair ; sixteen members were present. 



The following persons were elected as active members : 



Dr. J. C. Arthur, Lafayette, Ind. 



Professor Melville T. Cooke, Greencastle, Ind. 



Mrs. Elizabeth B. Davenport, Brattleboro, Vt. 



The paper of the evening was by Mr. Eugene Smith, entitled 

 " Remarks on Aquatic Plants." 



The speaker exhibited a number of specimens of marsh and 

 aquatic plants. The distinction between the two is not sharply 

 drawn, but the true aquatics pass their entire life under water or 

 at most produce only their flowers and fruit at the surface. The 

 flowers of true aquatics are never showy. Marsh and aquatic 

 vegetation includes many diverse elements from a systematic 

 standpoint, including representatives from the lowest to the highest 

 families. Algae are of course almost exclusively aquatic and con- 

 stitute a great part of the underwater vegetation. The bryophytes 

 are represented by many species, some of which are truly aquatic. 

 The pteridophytes have a few aquatic and semi-aquatic mem- 

 bers. The Naiadaceae and Valisneriaceae are the most important 

 families of flowering plants that are wholly aquatic. Many 

 others include aquatic species, but they become fewer in the 

 Gamopetalae. 



Few species of flowering plants are able to live in brackish or 

 salt water. Methods of pollination are often interesting, as in 

 Valisneria, where the staminate spathes are on short stalks near 

 the bottom and at maturity break away, carrying the pollen to 

 the surface, where the pistillate spathes are borne on long pedun- 

 cles. These after pollination coil up so that the fruits ripen 

 near the bottom. With water plants that have both submerged 

 and floating leaves there is usually a marked difference of form 

 between the two. The tissues of aquatics are usually soft and 

 flaccid. The plants being supported by the water do not need 

 to develop hard woody tissues for mechanical support. 



In the neighborhood of a body of water four categories of 



