126 



seemed too early in the season for finding many herbaceous 

 plants in flower and this was especially the case with the mono- 

 cotyledons. 



Dr. N. L. Britton showed specimens of Washingtonia longis- 

 tylis collected a few days previously near Washington, D. C, 

 differing from Torrey's type of the species in greater hairiness. 



Mrs. Britton alluded to the organization of " The Wild Flower 

 Preservation Society of America." Professor Earle remarked 

 upon the region west of the Pecos River, where vegetation has 

 been nearly exterminated by overstocking with cattle, as a proper 

 field for the activities of the Society. 



Dr. MacDougal showed a corm of Amorphophalliis, kept for 

 twenty months in a dark room, where it had flowered. New 

 buds, apparently adventitious, had formed near its base. 



Marshall A. Howe, 



Secretary pro tern. 



NEWS ITEMS 



Dr. W. Seward Webb has contributed $6,000 toward the fund 

 for the purchase and maintenance of the Pringle herbarium by the 

 University of Vermont. 



Hon. Addison Brown, president of the Torrey Botanical Club, 

 received the degree of LL.D. from Harvard University at the 

 last commencement. 



Professor F. S. Earle, assistant curator of the New York 

 Botanical Garden, was recently granted the honorary degree of 

 A.M. by the Alabama Polytechnic Institute. 



Professor Alexander W. Evans, of Yale University, and Mr. 

 Percy Wilson, of the New York Botanical Garden, are making 

 botanical collections in Porto Rico under the auspices of the latter 

 institution. 



Dr. William A. Murrill, of the Boys' High School, New York 

 City, is spending the summer in Europe, where he will devote 

 especial attention to the study of type specimens of fungi, partic- 

 ularly those of Fries in Sweden, and those of Berkeley and Cooke 

 in England. 



