150 
Dr. P.:A. Rydberg recently spent a few days at the National 
Herbarium, Washington, D. C., studying the collections of the 
family Ambrosiaceae. The manuscript for a revision of this 
family has been almost ready for several years, waiting an oppor- 
tunity for publication in the North American Flora. It will 
now soon appear in print as the first part of volume 33, together 
with Dr. H. A. Gleason’s monograph of the tribe Vernonieae of 
the family Carduaceae. 
An interesting species of arum from India, Amorphophallus 
bulbifer, flowered in Conservatory Range 1, House 11, on June 
20. The flower of this species is extremely malodorous, the 
pollen evidently being distributed in the native habitat of the 
plant by means of flies. About a month after the appearance 
of the flower, a large compound leaf appears which bears bulbs 
very much resembling the common hard-skinned puffball. 
A more extended description of this plant may be found in the 
JOURNAL for June, 1916. 
At its annual commencement June 25, the University of Ver- 
mont conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Science on 
Dr. Marshall A. Howe, curator of flowerless plants at the Garden, 
as a recognition of his important achievements in algology. 
Professor George P. Burns presented Dr. Howe for the degree 
in the following words: ‘‘ Marshall Avery Howe, a native of Ver- 
mont, a graduate of the University in the class of 1890, a doctor 
of philosophy from Columbia University in 1898, botanist, 
teacher, author, explorer, and research worker, who has won a 
prominent place in all these fields of botanical science.” 
Dr. John K. Small returned from Florida in May, after a 
successful excursion devoted to the study and collection of cacti, 
especially those of the cereus group. From Miami as head- 
quarters, two collecting trips were made across the peninsula, 
the one to the mouth of the Manatee River, the other to the 
mouth of the Caloosahatchee and to Marco in the northern part 
of the Ten Thousand Islands. The Florida reef was visited at 
