1894.] Botany. 805 
son for feeling ashamed of their work as represented in these meet- 
ings. 
In the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science nearly 
every paper dealt with some question more or less botanical. Here of 
course, the treatment was economic rather than strictly scientific, and 
yet in every case there was much of interest to the botanist. Thus 
there were papers on “The Vitality of the Seeds of Red Clover” 
(Beal); “The Russian Thistle in Nebraska ” ( Bessey) ; “ A possible 
Relation between Blights and Exceptional Weather” (Halsted) ; 
“The Growth of Lettuce as affected by Physical Properties of the 
Soil” (Galloway) ; ete., ete. 
The Botanical Club of the Association held several interesting ses- 
sions, and took active part in a delightful excursion by boat to Cold 
Spring Harbor on the north shore of Long Island. Among the 
notes presented before the club were the following: “The Prothal- 
lium of Marsilia vestita" (Bessey); “Notes on Oat-Smut” (Jones) ; 
“The use of Formalin as a Preservative Agent ” (Galloway) ; “ Spo- 
rangial trichomes on Ferns” (Durand) ; “ The Significance of Stipules 
from the standpoint of Paleobotany ” (Hollick); * A Plea for the bet- 
ter Pronunciation of Botanical Names” (Bessey) ; “ A Species of 
Olpidium parasitic on Spirogyra” (Durand) ; * A method of making 
pure cultures of Fungi” (Smith) ; etc., etc. 
A Committee on the pronunciation of Botanical Names was ap- 
pointed ‘consisting of Charles E. Bessey, N. L. Britton and E. L. 
Greene. The officers for the next year are Douglas H. Campbell, of 
Palo Alto, California, and Frederick C. Newcomb, of Ann Arbor, 
Michigan. 
Twenty-six papers were read before Section G, beginning with the 
opening address by Vice-President Underwood, upon * The Evolution 
of the Hepatiez." In this the speaker traced in a masterly way the 
evolution of the several groups of the liverworts, pointing out their 
mutual relationships, as well as their affinities with higher and lower 
plants. 
The other papers were as follows: 
B. T. Galloway, “The Growth of Radishes as affected by the Size 
and Weight of the Seed”; Katherine E. Golden, * The Movement of 
Gases in Rhizomes”; A. D. Hopkins, “Some Interesting Conditions 
in Wood resulting from the attacks of Insects and Woodpeckers ” ; 
W. J. Beal, “The Sugar Maples of Central Michigan”; John 
M. Coulter, “Some Affinities among Cactaceæ "; Charles E. Bessey, 
“Simplification and Degeneration ” ; Frederick C. Newcomb, “ Regu- 
