59 



December 21, 1914 



A special meeting of the Club was held in the lecture room of 

 the New York Botanical Garden, December 21, 19 14, at which 

 forty persons were present. Vice-President Barnhart presided. 



An illustrated lecture on " Some New Ideas Regarding Lichens," 

 under the title "Lichens" was given by Dr. Bruce Fink. 



Dr. Fink gave a brief historical survey from the time lichens 

 were regarded as mosses, algae, or fungi to the present time when 

 research seems to have established the belief that the lichen is 

 a fungus parasitic on an alga. In proof of this position, the 

 relation of the lichen to its algal host was considered briefly. 

 Following this, work on the taxonomy of the Collemaceae, based 

 upon the supposition that these plants are fungi, was presented 

 by lantern-slides. The cortex, the medulla, the reproductive 

 areas, and the structure of various parts of the apothecium were 

 discussed with a view to showing their various values as taxon- 

 omic characters. Such interesting features, — transitional forms 

 showing how a cortex may have arisen, the varying degree of 

 development of cortices, the methods and degrees of branching 

 of paraphyses, and the presence of internal spermatia were con- 

 sidered. Finally the old and the new types of lichen diagnoses 

 were presented and compared. 



Adjournment followed. 



B. O. Dodge, 



Secretary. 



NEWS ITEMS 



It is d'fficult to get information about botanists who are serving 

 in their respective armies during the war, but from Germany 

 some news has come through. According to the Evening Post 

 the Berlin Tagehlatt has an interesting article on the botanists 

 in the field. One of the most eminent of those who early took 

 up arms. Dr. Brandt, has fallen in battle, on the Russian frontier. 

 He hurried to the front from the Spanish Sierra Nevada, where 

 he had been collecting plants. His dissertation on " Der mor- 

 phologische Bau der Weinstockgewachse " at once attracted the 

 attention of the learned world. Dr. Brandt was barely thirty 



