As^ptJembe?,hia9c™'}        International  Botanical  Congress.  417 
INTERNATIONAL  BOTANICAL  CONGRESS.1 
The  second  International  Botanical  Congress  was  held  at  Vienna, 
June  1 1— 1 8,  1905,  and  was  highly  successful  in  every  way.  There 
was  a  large  and  unusually  representative  attendance,  the  list  of 
members  containing  about  600  names.  Deducting  ladies  registered 
with  husbands  or  relatives,  and  the  considerable  number  of  amateurs 
from  Vienna  and  the  neighborhood,  it  is  certainly  safe  to  say  that 
there  were  present  nearly  400  professional  botanists.  Of  that  number 
nearly  one-half  would  be  known  by  name  to  any  one  familiar  with 
botanical  literature,  and  among  these  were  many  whose  reputation 
is  world-wide.  Naturally  Austria  was  most  numerously  represented, 
but  Germany  sent  a  large  contingent,  and  nearly  all  the  European 
countries  were  represented,  except  perhaps  those  of  the  Iberian  and 
the  lower  Balkan  peninsulas.  The  English  were  few — a  half-dozen 
at  most.  Sixteen  American  botanists  were  present :  Arthur,  Atkin- 
son, Barnes,  Barnhart,  Blakeslee,  Britton  (Mr.  and  Mrs.),  Brown, 
Campbell,  Coville,  Duggar,  Robinson,  Shear,  Trelease,  Underwood, 
and  Woods.  But  American  societies  were  sadly  negligent,  and 
many  were  unrepresented  which  might  have  delegated  authority  to 
some  of  the  sixteen. 
The  Congress  was  opened  in  the  Festsaal  of  the  University  by 
Wiesner,  with  addresses  of  welcome  by  the  minister  of  agriculture, 
speaking  for  the  Emperor;  by  the  burgomeister,  for  the  city;  and 
by  the  rector,  for  the  university.  Bonnet,  secretary  of  the  Paris 
Congress,  gave  a  historical  statement  of  the  organization  of  the 
present  congress,  and  Reinke  (Kiel)  delivered  an  address  on  "  Hy- 
pothese,  Voraussetzungen,  Probleme  in  der  Biologie." 
1  This  interesting  and  concise  account  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Vienna  Con- 
gress by  Prof.  Charles  R.  Barnes,  is  reprinted  from  the  July  number  of  the 
Botanical  Gazette. 
The  proceedings,  particularly  as  they  relate  to  botanical  nomenclature,  are  not 
only  of  interest  to  botanists,  but  are  also  of  interest  to  pharmacists,  as  the  true 
botanical  origin  of  drugs  is  a  question  in  which  they  are  especially  concerned. 
Fortunately,  the  botanical  nomenclature  adopted  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  has 
not  been  unduly  influenced  by  the  more  radical  views  on  this  subject.  In  fol- 
lowing Engler  and  Prantl,  in  the  main,  the  botanical  nomenclature  of  the  new 
Pharmacopoeia  is  thus  in  line  with  the  action  of  the  congress  just  closed,  and 
further  changes  in  nomenclature  are  not  likely  to  be  made  until  after  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Pharmacopceial  Convention  in  1910. — Editor. 
