I had the pleasure of meeting a number of botanists at Wash¬ 
ington. F. W. Coville, Chief of the Department, who was very kind 
to me, as were W. H. Evans, A. S. Hitchcock, Wm. R. Maxon, P. L. 
Ricker,-R. H. True and others. Some of them are not particularly 
interested in “puff ball’ ’ work, though all seemed to take an interest 
in the stand I have taken on the nomenclature question, and I was 
surprised and gratified to find they had read after me so closely. I 
must admit, however, that not one of them (nor any other botanist I 
have met) is willing to go to the extreme of omitting personal names 
after the names of plants. All admit the load botany is carrying in 
the way of synonyms; all deplore the kind of work that is largely 
done; some even agree with me in ascribing to personal interest much 
of this work, and yet not one is willing to cast off the the tap-root of 
the whole trouble. 
ALBANY. 
It is gratifying to find Prof. Peck much more pleasantly located 
than when last I saw him. Then he was crowded in a little hall-way 
in the Capitol, now he has a large room in Geological Hall where he 
can conveniently keep his specimens. The “puff balls” of the collec¬ 
tion are ample in quantity and there is no trouble in arriving at Prof. 
Peck’s views on each of the New York species. They are mostly kept 
in trays in a show case for exhibit purposes. But a single specimen 
of Secotium acuminatum has been found in the state of New York. 
Mitremyces cinnabarinus occurs but rarely in the southern section; 
Calvatia caelata has been collected in the state but once and the speci¬ 
men is not so strongly marked as the western plant with which I am 
familiar. Calvatia craniiformis is not represented at all as a New 
York species in Prof. Peck’s collection. This is surprising to me as it 
is abundant about Cincinnati, and I am quite sure I have it from States 
farther east than New York. The “puff ball” collections, other than 
New York specimens, are not very numerous. I saw the type 
of “Secotium decipiens” and it is as I have taken it to be, 
Gyrophragmium Delilei of Europe. The type of “Battarrea attenu- 
ata” has been lost and hence I cannot say whether or not it is 
Dictyocephalos curvatus. From the description, I have thought it to 
be that plant. From Prof. Peck’s memory of the plant as he kindly 
described and sketched it, I think it is not. It is certainly unfortun¬ 
ate that Prof. Peck should have described as a new species a plant, 
which in the absence of the specimen, must always remain a mystery. 
It is not even certain whether or not it is a Battarrea. I think the 
record of Clathrus cancellatus from New York is very doubtful. The 
only certain specimens I know from this country are from Florida, in 
the museum at Harvard. The specimens sent Prof. Peck from New 
York were all broken in little pieces. At that time Prof. Peck was 
not acquainted with Clathrus columnatus, our most common species, 
and referred the fragments to Clathrus cancellatus, the only species of 
which he then knew. It is impossible now from the little that 
remains in the herbarium, to speak positively, but the probabilities are 
that it is Clathrus columnatus. 
150 
