11 



On report of the committee on nominations, the name of Pro- 

 fessor Charles E. Bessey was removed from the list of corre- 

 sponding to that of active members. 



The Club voted that beginning with January ist, the Club meet 

 each second Tuesday of the month at the College of Pharmacy 

 at 8 p. m., and on each last Wednesday at 3:30 p. m. at the 

 Botanical Garden. 



The first paper was by F. S. Earle, on " Ascocorticiam in 

 North America," correcting the current nomenclature as to this 

 genus. 



The second paper, by Dr. Britton, " Remarks on the Flora of 

 St. Kitts, British West Indies," was a sketch of his recent obser- 

 vations there, with a copious series of mounted specimens and of 

 fruits and other specimens in formalin. Scarcely any botanical 

 work had been done on St. Kitts previous to the explorations by 

 Dr. Britton and Mr. John F. Cowell last summer. In all they 

 collected about 3,500 herbarium specimens, representing perhaps 

 half of the flora. Several tree-ferns were brought which are now 

 making good growth, and a considerable number of cacti which 

 are already on exhibition in the succulent house. 



Dr. Britton spoke in particular of the great interest attaching 

 to that purely tropical flora, the only plant familiar from our At- 

 lantic coast being the introduced horseweed, Leptilon. St. Kitts 

 is a volcanic mass, formed of a rugged central mountain rising 

 to about 4,000 feet, dissected by radiating gorges which reach to 

 the sea, and wholly surrounded by a fringe of arable land on the 

 shore. Sides of steep ravines 300 feet deep were often completely 

 covered with a prodigious growth of tree-ferns ; there were four 

 or five species in the ravines and one or two others more in the 

 denser forests ; some reached a height of 50 feet ; one species was 

 chiefly prostrate. A good number of the filmy ferns were found 

 and several Gleicheniaceae at high altitudes, where ferns consti- 

 tuted the chief flora. No Equiseta were found ; among the lyco- 

 pods, a few specimens of Psilotnm on tree-trunks, some large and 

 handsome species of Sclaginclla, and three of Lycopodium, of 

 which one conspicuous species was known to the negroes as 

 " staghorn." The grasses number 30 or more, the largest a 



