12 



second illustrates an undescribed genus, related to Diclidanthera 

 but differing in some remarkable structural peculiarities of the 

 flower. Four of the five petals are weakly connate in two pairs, 

 separated from each other and from the fifth petal by wide 

 sinuses, and only seven or eight stamens are present, instead of 

 the ten usually characteristic of the family. Technical de- 

 scriptions will be published in the Bulletin of the Club. 



Mrs. Britton reported that a long lost species of moss described 

 by Bridel in 1826 as Orthotrichum stellatum had been recently 

 borrowed from Berlin through the courtesy of the officials of the 

 Botanical Gardens. This moss had been sent to Dr. John Torrey 

 by Dennis Cooley in 1820, collected in Massachusetts, probably 

 near Deerfield where he lived. No specimen was kept by Dr. 

 Torrey and no mention of the name occurred in any American 

 textbook of mosses. Meanwhile it had been described and 

 figured by W. S. Sullivant as "0. strangulatum Beauv." a species 

 which is still poorly understood and probably belongs to another 

 group of terrestrial lime-loving species. 0. stellatum is a tree- 

 species with well-marked ridges, strongly contracted in the 

 upper part when old and dry, with the teeth reflexed in pairs and 

 the stomata immersed in one row around the base of the ridges. 

 Although the cilia are absent, it is probable that they were 

 present when gathered and there is no doubt that 0. stellatum 

 Brid. (1826) and 0. strangulatum Sull. (non Beauv.) are the same 

 species. 



The next paper was by Dr. F. E. Denny on "Hastening the 

 starting of dormant potato tubers." 



Freshly harvested potato tubers, if replanted under conditions 

 favorable for growth, do not sprout at once but require a period 

 of after-ripening. The length of dormancy varies with the vari- 

 ety but is generally two months or more. In experiments for the 

 purpose of finding a m.ethod of chemical treatment that would 

 shorten this rest period and permit early sprouting, two hundred 

 twenty-four different chemicals were tested and about three 

 thousand separate experimental lots were used. 



The varieties used were principally Bliss Triumph and Irish 

 Cobbler, but McCormick, Spaulding's Rose, Green Mountain, 

 Rural New Yorker, and Early Ohio were also tried. Of all the 

 chemicals tried, ethylene chlorhydrin (CICH2CH2OH) gave the 

 greatest promise of success. 



