21 

 Meeting of October 19, 1932 



The meeting was called to order at The New York Botanical 

 Garden at 3:30 p.m. by President Sinnott. There were 32 mem- 

 bers present. 



Mr. George Hume Smith, 1925 Central Avenue, Indianapo- 

 lis, Indiana was unanimously elected to membership in the club. 



President Sinnott stated that the next meeting of the Club 

 would be held at Schermerhorn Hall, Columbia University, on 

 Wednesday evening November 2, instead of November 1, as 

 Professor Owind Winge of the University of Copenhagen would 

 speak on "Sex determination in Malandrium and Lebistes." 



Last year at the suggestion of several members of the club, 

 the President appointed a committee consisting of Dr. Britton 

 as Chairman, Dr. Howe and Dr. Harper. Dr. Howe presented 

 a proposed amendment to the constitution regarding the appoint- 

 ment of a council to take the place of the executive committee. 



Several suggestions as to changes to the proposed amend- 

 ment were made and the matter referred back to the committee. 



Mr. Harold N. Moldenke of The New York Botanical Gar- 

 den gave a very interesting talk on "The Genus Callicarpa." 



Mr. Henry Teuscher gave an interesting talk on "Some Sug- 

 gestions of a Horticulturist on the Problem 'What Is a Spe- 

 cies?"' 



Against personal inclination I have had to dive pretty deeply into tax- 

 onomy. During the last 10 years I have been called upon twice to establish 

 large arboreta, and in such undertakings one can never get very far, before one 

 runs into a maze of taxonomic problems in which one has to take a stand. To 

 assemble some 6000 species and varieties of trees and shrubs, and to arrange 

 them intelligently, one must decide upon the system which is to be followed. 

 The same species will frequently be received from different sources under 3 

 or 4 different names, and from these the valid name which is to be used in the 

 future has to be selected. The eternal question: "what is a species?" pops up 

 on every side and has to be solved somehow. The taxonomist gets out of this 

 rather easily. He simply makes up his mind that the plant before him is a new 

 species; he describes it, and gives it a name, and is done with it. The horticul- 

 turist who tries to grow this species is practically married to it; and all too fre- 

 quently, he finds out that his spouse has more than one alias. Certain charac- 

 teristics, as for instance pubescence, which may be distinct enough on wild 

 growing plants or collected herbarium specimens, frequently become in- 

 distinct under cultivation. Extreme forms, so distinct from others that they 

 were considered to be species, will, if raised from seeds, occasionally produce 

 a range of varieties which link them with existing species; or they will even 



