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Tuesday, March ii, 1902 



The meeting was held at the College of Pharmacy ; 20 present ; 

 Dr. Britton in the chair. 



Three new members were elected : Miss Nina L. Marshall, 

 Miss Ely's School, Riverside Drive, N. Y.; Miss Palmyre C. 

 Clarke, N. Y. Botanical Garden ; Miss Liliie Angell, 19 Minton 

 Place, Orange, N. J. 



Seven resignations were accepted. 



Professor Underwood reported a reply from the Syracuse 

 Botanical Club indicating that the members would probably 

 cooperate in the proposed July 4th excursion. 



The first paper, by Edward S. Burgess, was on " Plant Illus- 

 tration in the Middle Ages," being a portion of a contribution to 

 the history of early botany soon to be printed among his Aster 

 Studies. It was illustrated by examples from his library of 

 early woodcuts intended to represent Aster, dated 1485, 1499, 

 etc. (long anterior to the first adequate drawing of Aster Amellus 

 L., that of Fuchs in 1542); and also examples of the value once 

 put upon the vellum for manuscripts, showing an Italian manu- 

 script dating perhaps from before 1 200, in which torn vellum had 

 been carefully mended before writing. He also exhibited a series 

 of heliotypes, representing about 25 pages of unpublished 

 mediaeval manuscript containing drawings of plants, and nearly 

 as many pages more of decorated text ; photographed by Pro- 

 fessor Giacosa, of Turin, to accompany his recent edition of cer- 

 tain of the Salernitan masters [Magistri Salemitani, Turin, 1901). 

 Early plant figures long made it their one aim to show the out- 

 line. Chief attention was given to leaves, stem and branches. 

 Flowers were less often and less successfully indicated. The 

 characteristic habit of a plant, however, was often caught very 

 perfectly. Figures were copied often with scrupulous care from 

 one manuscript to another. Several causes tended, however, to 

 their degeneration. Pliny charges the blame for the imperfect 

 plant-figures of his time upon lack of skill of copyists. Some of 

 the worst among later errors were those of copyists who were 

 attempting copies of plants they had never seen ; as in early 



