50 
SELMA BRANCH, 
The schedule of trips would have gone to you sooner 
but unfortunately for business I had at the meeting 
some stinging nettle which kept claiming attention more 
than the work in hand, since some of the members dis- 
covered the spring action of the stamens and the scatter- 
ing of pollen. All our members are so interested in the 
botany of plants that it is a task to drag them away for 
business details. I wish Dr. Jepson that you could be an 
observer at our Thursday meetings. You would be grati- 
fied with the earnest enthusiasm. Our meetings consist 
of discussions and of work in classification, the members 
getting right down to details with the lenses and tools. 
Surely my dining-room table could never be spread with 
more interesting feasts. The members must almost be 
driven home! — H. P. Kelley, Mar. 3, 1921. 
PERSONAL NEWS. 
Dr. F. C. Newcombe, Professor of Botany in the 
University of Michigan, is spending the winter at Stan- 
ford University. 
Dr. Helen Gilkey, Assistant Professor of Botany in 
the Oregon State College, has been working at the Uni- 
versity of California Herbarium during the last fortnight- 
Professor Higginbottom, Director of the Gwalier Agri- 
cultural Institution, Central India, recently delivered an 
address before the University Agriculture Club on the 
agriculture of India. The region described by Professor 
Higginbottom is of immense interest to botanists as well 
as agriculturists, because of the varied and numerous 
indigenous species found there; the species being eleven 
times as numerous in Central India as in the most favor- 
ed portion of the United States. 
Professor J. W. Gilmore, head of the Division of 
Agronomy of the College of Agriculture, University of 
California, has been appointed Exchange Professor to the 
University of Chile. This appointment is in recognition 
of a varied experience. He was once connected with 
Cornell University; he helped establish an institution in 
the province of Hupeh, China, for promoting modern 
agricultural methods; he had experience with the fiber 
industries in the Philippines; later he was President of 
the College of Hawaii. Professor Gilmore will carry to 
Chile a selected stock of cereals to be planted upon his 
arrival and harvested before his departure. 
AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 
The following amendments were presented to and 
voted by the Society at the regular meeting of March 12. 
No. 1. The officers of the Society shall be a Presi- 
dent, First Vice-President, Second Vice-President, Secre- 
tary and Treasurer. 
No. 2. The Council shall consist of the five officers. 
No. 3. The article regarding dues to be changed 
from the Constitution to the By-Laws. 
