906 The American Naturalist. [Ootober, 
J. M. Coulter: The pollen grain and the antipodal region. 
D. P. Penhallow: Studies of the species of Picea. 
H. J. Webber: The fertilization of Zamia. 
D. T. McDougal and D. H. Campbell: Report upon the proposed 
tropical laboratory. 
E. L. Greene: Bibliographical difficulties. 
The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, 
Dr. N. L. Britton; Vice-President, Prof. J. C. Arthur; Secretary, 
Prof. C. R. Barnes; Treasurer, Arthur Hollick. The next meeting 
will be held in Boston just previous to the meeting of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science. 
Government Timber-tests.—The Division of Forestry of the 
United States Department of Agriculture issued some months ago. a 
summary of mechanical tests on thirty-two species of American woods 
(Circular 15) which is worthy of something more than a passing remark. 
These tests were made in St. Louis, Mo., by Professor J. B. Johnson. 
This work has been carried on for six years, resulting in the collection 
of a great deal of valuable information in regard to the timbers inves- 
tigated. The work thus far has been very carefully done, and the 
results cannot but prove of the greatest value to engineers and others 
who make use of timber for large constructions. It is a pity that the 
Chief of the Division has to say “at the present writing all work in 
timber-testing has been abandoned.” It is to be hoped that the Secre- 
tary of Agriculture will make strenuous efforts to secure the means for 
continuing the work. Certainly our American timbers are worthy of 
being carefully studied, and having their values rated in standard 
works on the strength of materials. A Secretary who wishes to bring 
things American to the favorable notice of the world could not do 1t 
more certainly than by securing the exact data demanded by engineers 
as to the value of our native timbers.—Caar.es E. Bessey. 
Notes.—J. M. Greenman, of the Gray Herbarium of Harvard 
University, contributes three papers to the Proceedings of the Ameri- 
can Academy of Arts and Sciences (Vol. XXXII, No. 16), namely, 
a Revision of the Mexican and Central American Species of Houstonia, 
a Key to the Mexican Species of Liabum, and Descriptions of new or 
little-known Plants from Mexico. 
Among the recent papers on mosses is an important one by J. Car- 
dot on the Mosses of the Azores and of Madeira, in the Eighth Annual 
Report of the Missouri Botanical Garden. It includes twenty-four 
