243 



tlial it is curious to find such general neglect of this among writefs 

 on these subjects. Perhaps with this in mind the authfjr of the 

 present book has devoted nearly half of it to historical notes on 

 the natural history of the region, before giving his descriptions 

 in detail of the present distribution of life in the District of 

 Columbia. 



This section of the book is about forty pages long and includes 

 "Piedmont Plateau and Coastal Plain," "Magnolia Bogs and 

 their relation to the Pine Barrens," ending with a description of 

 other types of collecting grounds in the District. Associations 

 of plants and animals are dealt with in all these essays. 



The indexed map of the region is quite the most complete thing 

 of its kind that comes to mind. In the region near New York 

 there are scores of old place names, now known only to the 

 delving few, and that similar conditions prevail about Washing- 

 ton is proven by Mr. McAtee's map which incidentally furnishes 

 a remed\- for them that would be welcomed in New York. 



In the historical part of the book the attempt to translate old 

 references to plants into modern binomials has not always been 

 happ\-, as for instance "yellow jessamine" (probably Gelsemium 

 sempervirens) is in a footnote referred to Bignonia radicans, 

 which is of course the Trumpet Creeper. It remains, however, 

 that the volume, with its excellent bibliographies, both plant 

 and animal, and its most generously indexed map. will be a boon 

 to Washington naturalists and a model of the complete descrip- 

 tion of the natural history of an area meriting wide imitation. 



N. T. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE CLUB 

 May 29, 1 91 8 

 This meeting was held in the Morphological Laboratory of 

 the New York Botanical Garden, beginning at 3:30 P.M. Ten 

 persons were present with Vice-president Barnhart in the chair. 

 The minutes of the meetings of April 24 and May 14 were 

 read and approved. 



The following were elected to membership, subject to approval 

 of the committee on admissions. 



