maritime shores. That it does not occur on some shores where it might naturally be expected is attributed to enemies, among whom, it may be, even primitive man is to be counted. It cannot succeed in forests because it is unable to compete with other trees, and it is there without means of dissemination, for its nuts fall directly at the foot of the tree without any chance of being carried to a distance. On the seashore, favored by its tolerance of salt water, it encounters little competition, and the ocean currents bear its nuts afar.

A further argument is drawn from the singular association. existing between the Coco Palm and the Robber Crab. This great crustacean, Birgus latro, a foot and a half in length, and terrestrial in habit, can exist only where the cocoanut flourishes, and is found only in the Asiatic and Pacific islands. Like its relative, the Hermit Crab, its soft body is unprovided with a protective covering, and to supply this want the Birgus encases its abdomen in the empty shell of a cocoanut, to the cavity of which its dimensions exactly correspond. Even that it climbs to the tops of the palms for the purpose of detaching the nuts, long regarded as a fable, has been recently ascertained to be a fact. Its buccinal claw has developed into a ponderous hammer, wherewith it staves in the germinal end of the cocoanut and extracts, bit by bit, the nourishing meat. To this rich food it is due that its abdomen is a reservoir of oil.

These modifications, so extraordinary both in habits and in organs, and found in the Birgus alone, of all the crab family, could have been acquired by association with no other plant than the Coco Palm, and to account for their acquisition demands an immense period of time. And since Polynesia is the native home of Birgus latro, it is logical to conclude that it is likewise that of Cocos nucifera.

The author, therefore, believes that the Coco Palm acquired its specific form in Polynesia, and that its distribution therein. was effected by the ocean currents, whose efficiency for that purpose is so vigorously combated by Mr. Cook. In Asia and in Malasia it has only gained a foothold under the protection of S. B. PARISH

man.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CLUB

OCTOBER II, 1910

The first fall meeting of the Club was held at the Museum of Natural History. Vice-president Barnhart occupied the chair. Eight persons were present. Mrs. M. E. Soth, of Manitou, Colorado, was elected to membership.

The scientific program consisted of an illustrated lecture on "European Influences in the History of American Botany" by Dr. John Hendley Barnhart.

JEAN BROADHURST,

Secretary pro tem.

OCTOBER 26, 1910

Eleven persons

The meeting of October 26 was held in the museum building of the New York Botanical Garden at 3:30 P.M. were present. Vice-president Barnhart occcupied the chair.

The minutes of the meeting of October II were read and approved. It was then voted to accept the resignation of Frederick S. Beattie, of Tilton, N. H.

The scientific program consisted of informal reports on the summer's work. Mr. Norman Taylor, chairman of the field committee, gave an account of the Decoration Day excursion by members of the Club to Saugerties, Ulster Co., N. Y., of a personal collecting expedition to Bean Run, Luzerne Co., Pa., and of the "Symposium" in cooperation with the Philadelphia Botanical Club, which was held this year at Farmingdale, Monmouth County, New Jersey, July 2 to July 9. Farmingdale is north of the pine-barren region and its soils are largely Cretaceous marls and clays, but it was of interest to find in this region, especially on the low hills, northward extensions of the range of certain characteristic pine-barren plants.

Mrs. N. L. Britton gave a report of the summer meeting of the Vermont Botanical Club, which was held at Woodstock, Vermont, during the first week of July.

Mr. F. J. Seaver remarked briefly concerning his visit to the mountains of Colorado, where he made collections of fungi during the month of September.

Dr. John Hendley Barnhart reported upon his visit to Europe during May, June, and July, including an account of the International Botanical Congress at Brussels, to which he was one of the Club's delegates. He also related some of his experiences and results in purchasing books for the library of the New York Botanical Garden and in a few hours of plant-collecting in the vicinity of Oberammergau.

Dr. P. A. Rydberg stated that for the first season in twenty-six years he had not collected a single plant, and in this connection he briefly reviewed some of his earlier field-work.

Adjournment followed.

MARSHALL A. HOWE,

Secretary pro tem.

OF INTEREST TO TEACHERS

KIPLING ON THE OLD HERBALISTS

In Kipling's Rewards and Fairies* is a musical poem, "Our Fathers of Old", which shows that Kipling must be familiar with some of the old herbals. The first stanza follows:

"Excellent herbs had our fathers of old-
Excellent herbs to ease their pain-

Alexanders and Marigold,

Eyebright, Orris, and Elecampane.

Basil, Rocket, Valerian, Rue,

(Almost singing themselves they run)

Vervain, Dittany, Call-me-to-you

Cowslip, Meliot, Rose of the Sun.

Anything green that grew out of the mould

Was an excellent herb to our fathers of old."

As in Adam in Eden, “simply and gravely the facts are told"; yet after all,

"Wonderful little, when all is said,

Wonderful little our fathers knew.
Half their remedies cured you dead—

Most of their teaching was quite untrue."

*Doubleday, Page and Co., Garden City, New York, 1910.

In the October issue (page 236) Professor Macoun's address was given as Ontario instead of Ottawa.

Teachers in the southwestern states will be interested in The Trees and Shrubs of San Antonio and Vicinity. This little booklet gives the woody plants of the region, with a brief, nontechnical description, and a short paragraph on uses and habitats. There is no key, but, as the author says, any plant may be traced to the family by any general flora; and as the plants are grouped by families, its further identification is a simple matter. common names are emphasized by being placed first.

The

Professor Bessey (Science, November 11) has made a new estimate of the number of species of plants "with which botanists have enough acquaintance to permit of their systematic arrangement and enumeration. The result is that roughly speaking we may say that there are now known about 210,000 species, distributed as follows: Myxophyceae (Blue Greens) 2,020, Protophyceae (Simple Algae) 1,100, Zygophyceae (Conjugate Algae) 7,000, Siphonophyceae (Tube Algae) 1,100, Phaeophyceae (Brown Algae) 1,030, Carpophyceae (Higher Algae) 3,210, Carpomyceteae (Higher Fungi) 63,700, Bryophyta (Mossworts) 16,600, Pteridophyta (Ferns) 2,500, Calamophyta (Calamites) 20, Lepidophyta (Lycopods) 900, Cycadophyta (Cycads) 140, Strobilophyta (Conifers) 450, and Anthophyta (Flowering Plants) 110,000.

An article on conserving the purity of the soil (Science, Oct. 21) by H. L. Bolley emphasizes the necessity of keeping soils, especially for cereals, in a sanitary condition. The author concludes with the following paragraph:

"If, on the other hand, you declare for careful seed selection in all cases, careful seed disinfection at all times, the formation of a well-aerated but compacted seed bed, and for as extensive a rotation of crops of as wide-spread character as possible, you of the new dry land regions of the west have the greatest possible

opportunity to prove to the world that it is not necessary to lose a crop of such importance as linseed from among your rotations, nor is it necessary that your wheat yields should fall from the now promising ones of thirty to sixty bushels per acre to the general average of twelve to fifteen."

The May Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club contains an article by Harry B. Brown on the genus Crataegus, with some theories concerning the origin of its species. Prior to 1896 about one hundred North American species of Crataegus had been described; since then eight hundred and sixty-six species and eighteen varieties have been described. Three explanations might be given: that the early systematists were not careful workers; that the number of species has multiplied greatly recently; that the older species are hybridizing. Opinions from leading systematists are given. Mr. Brown thinks that the present different concept of species is responsible for part of the increase; and the rest may be accounted for by (1) the decrease in forested land and the consequent increase in the number of Crataegus plants now occupying the space and (2) by the fact that many of the present forms seem to be hybrids.

In the Plant World for July an unusual formation of adventitious roots is described by F. A. Wolf. "During a storm the trunk of this large hackberry tree had been split and the fallen portion was subsequently removed. At a point about eight feet above the ground and a little above the broken edge of the tree a cluster of fibrous roots were formed. Some of these grew to be over a foot in length and larger in diameter than a lead pencil." Mr. Wolf says that there "is no doubt that no such phenomena would be expected to occur in a normal healthy tree, yet this is not an adequate explanation for their formation. Certain it is that the vitality of the tree had been seriously impaired and it responded to this abnormal condition by a peculiar development of roots. It would seem, too, that such a growth might better be expected in a more humid region and not under semi-arid conditions such as prevail about Austin. This is one of the singu