45 



ments in the manual on our bookshelf about the species of 

 Quercus or Eupatorium, having confidence in its author, but we 

 would probably arrive at a different conclusion if we gave these 

 groups long and patient study ourselves. That is how Brainerd 

 was able to improve our knowledge of Viola, how Sargent gave 

 us new ideas on Crataegus ; how Bicknell increased the southern 

 species of Sisyrinchium to 53; how Small reduced them to fif- 

 teen. Whether all these new species of Amsinckia will be main- 

 tained is a different question, but if they are reduced, their re- 

 duction will again be an expression of opinion based on careful 

 study. 



In conclusion, let me give a definition which may make one 

 more lenient in criticizing Suksdorf's work or any other similar 

 study. A species is a group of one or more individuals which in 

 your opinion deserves a binomial name. 



H. A. Gleason 



FIELD TRIPS OF THE CLUB 

 Lichen Observations on Winter Walks of the Club 

 Winter field meetings of the Torrey Botanical Club, in 

 February and March, brought out a good attendance in spite of 

 weather varying from moderate and sunny to snow and sleet. 

 On these trips the study of lichens proved interesting not only 

 for themselves, but because the usual subjects for observation 

 in the flowering season were absent. Most members and guests 

 showed keen interest in these plants, which might take a place 

 in outdoor nature study on a par with higher organisms if there 

 was a popular guide for them, which, the chairman hopes, the 

 Club may be able to publish. 



On Sunday, Feb. 12, a party of 28, led by the chairman of 

 the field committee, rambled in the Bear Mountain State Park, 

 including the granite knobs in the meadow at Iona Island, where 

 the prickly pear cactus colonies were seen; Doodletown Brook 

 and Valley, and the west end of Dunderberg Mountain. In the 

 brook, objects of interest were the aquatic lichen, Dermatocar- 

 pon miniatum aquaticum, growing on the stones among liver- 

 worts (Conocephallum and Pellia) and three plants of the Maid- 

 enhair Spleenwort, Asplenium Trichomanes, growing on a band 

 of Grenville limestone within the gneiss. 



