Vice-presidents, J. N. Rose, A. D. Hopkins, Hugh M. Smith, Vernon Bailey. Recording Secretary, M. W. Lyon, Jr. Members of Council, N. Hollister, J. W. Gidley, Wm. Palmer, Alex. Wetmore, E. A. Goldman. President Hay was elected a vice-president of the Washington Academy of Sciences. Ex-president Evermann then gave an illustrated lecture regarding the present condition of the museum of the California Academy of Science and on its aims and aspirations. Dr. Evermann's lecture was discussed by Messrs. E. W. Nelson and Vernon Bailey. M. W. LYON, Jr., Recording Secretary THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON THE 116th regular meeting of the Botanical Society of Washington was held in the Assembly Hall of the Cosmos Club at 8 P.M., December 5, 1916, President T. H. Kearney presiding. The program of the evening consisted of a symposium on the behavior of hybrids in different groups of plants. Mr. G. N. Collins called attention to the increased vigor of the first generation hybrids of Indian corn which is particularly marked in strains which have been widely separated geographically. Variability was found to be somewhat more characteristic of the second than of the first generation. Horny or sweet endosperm is perhaps the best example of a simple Mendelian character pair thus far encountered in maize. Horny and waxy endosperm are completely alternative but the departures do not conform to the expected ratio. Mr. O. F. Cook stated that when distinct types of cotton are crossed there is usually evidence of increased vigor and hardiness. As a rule, the first generation is intermediate between the parents, while the splitting is pronounced in the second and later generations, but with no cases of complete return to the ancestral types. A great deal of correlation or coherence in characters is often shown in the second and subsequent generations. The increment of selection which has been developed in the parent stock previous to crossing is totally lost in hybridization. Mr. H. V. Harlan called attention to the sharply contrasting characters in the barley group. Such characters as the following: hulled and naked, black and white, hooded and awned are inherited in the 1-3 ratio. Among the wheats, Dr. C. E. Leighty stated that nine groups are available for hybridization. The first generation shows increased vigor and greater uniformity. Most of the characters are intermediate. In most cases the behavior in subsequent generations can be explained on the basis of Mendel's law. Wheat hybrids are often fixed and many of the good commercial strains have originated in this way. The behavior of wheat and rye, oats and asparagus hybrids was discussed by Mr. J. B. Norton. A distinct coherence of characters is shown when naked oats are crossed with the ordinary hulled type. If Asparagus davuricus, a Chinese species, is crossed with Asparagus officinalis, the progeny resembled in most cases the Chinese mother, especially in dropping their branches in the fall. When these hybrids were crossed back with Asparagus officinalis, the second generation showed none of the abcission phenomena exhibited by the mother parent, although the expected ratio was 1-1. Resistance to wilt disease in hybrids of cotton, okra, watermelon and cowpea was discussed by Dr. W. A. Orton. In the first generation of cotton hybrids, wilt resistance is dominant; in the second generation a large percentage of non-resistant plants are produced. Selected wilt-resistant plants produced a third generation with marked increase in resistance. In the case of cowpea wilt resistance is limited to a distinct variety, "the Iron." In the case of watermelon the citron or stock melon was used in breeding for disease resistance. In hybrids of the Soy bean Mr. W. J. Morse found the characters investigated to behave as Mendelian characters and segregate according to the Mendelian ratio. The only interrelation of characters was noted in the case of the flower and the hypocotyl, white flower being associated with green hypocotyl and purple flower with purple hypocotyl. Studies were also reported on cowpea and alfalfa. The great differences in the behavior of citrus from other groups mentioned was discussed by Mr. Walter T. Swingle, who called attention especially to the large amount of variability occurring in the first generation hybrids. Many of these first-generation hybrids are of commercial value and may be propagated without variation from seeds which contain usually only false embryos originating from the nucellar tissues of the mother plant. In a few cases there is a true second generation. Mr. L. C. Corbett and Mr. William Stuart took part in an informal discussion which followed the regular program. H. L. SHANTZ, Corresponding Secretary SCIENCE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE MARINE ALGÆ1 IN connection with some work I am attempting along the line of geographical distribution, it has become desirable to make some sort of a survey of the entire literature of the marine algæ, to classify it and to note the influence of various writers in developing the different lines of geographical study. The progress of the knowledge of the marine algae has been slow in comparison with that of most other groups and the progress of our knowledge of the geographical distribution has been slower still. Much of this is due to the comparatively limited access to living material, the difficulties of collection, and the lack of any extensive economic value. In attempting to arrange the literature, as indicating the progress of thought and development, it has seemed best to separate the lines of work formally, and somewhat arbitrarily, into several more or less distinct, yet necessarily overlapping and intertwined groups of subjects. The subjects finally selected as bearing either directly or secondarily on geographical distribution are five, viz., taxonomy, morphology and development, floristics, physiology and geographical distribution. It is, of necessity, an impossible matter to segregate all the literature and arrange it definitely under one or another of these groups. Certain writers have written along two or more of these lines and in the later literature, particularly, several lines of thought and 1 Address of the vice-president and chairman of Section G, Botany, American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York, December 27, 1916. research are often found in combination. Nevertheless, both writers and works, as a rule, follow a main trend and may be arranged under one or another of the principal subjects, although important contributions under a different subject may also be included. Each of the subjects, in turn, may be divided into periods according to the principal influence at work and the progress along a special line of develop ment. One period naturally passes over into another, the way being prepared by those writers whose work may be termed anticipatory and the inception of a new period being marked by some writer, or group of writers, whose advance is more pronounced and whose innovations have had the greatest influence. In taxonomic lines, the beginnings are to be found in the earliest writers, both botanical and non-botanical, and the progress in the study of the marine algae was necessarily slow until the study of more and more of the more complex plants had pointed the way and, to some extent at least, the methods. Naturally the earlier work on the marine algæ, as on higher plants, was taxonomic, particularly descriptive. In the earlier period mere mention was made in general, but Morison, Ray, Hudson, Dillenius and Linnæus, for example, laid the foundations upon which Goodenough and Woodward, Gmelin, Turner, Esper, Poiret, De Candolle and others built more solidly. Gmelin (in 1768) published the first book on marine algæ, entitling it "Historia Fucorum." In the latter portion of this first period Roth and Stackhouse prepared for the coming of a more logical treatment, especially as to genera. The older method divided the species of alge between such polymorphic and indefinite genera as Fucus, Ulva, Conferva, Byssus and Tremella. Roth and Stackhouse added a few new ones, but these are also mostly of extensive application and of indefinite character. The second period of taxonomic progress dates from 1813, when J. V. Lamouroux published his "Essai sur les genres de la famille de Thassiophytes non articulées." Lamouroux practically instituted genera in very much the modern sense and laid the foundation for future work. Henceforth both the general morphology and the character of the fructification were taken into account in taxonomic work. Besides Lamouroux Bory de Saint Vincent, C. A. Agardh and Lyngbye were responsible for advance in the earlier part of this second taxonomic period. They were succeeded by Greville, Montagne, Decaisne, J. G. Agardh, J. D. Hooker, W. H. Harvey, Kützing, J. E. Areschoug, Ardissone, Zanardini, Ruprecht and others. The latter part of the second taxonomic period is merged with and came under the influence of a more careful morphologic and histologic study and a closer attention to the structure and development of the organs of fructification. Kützing did much to promote this in his "Phycologia Generalis" (1843) and his "Tabulæ Phycologica" (1845-1869). Naegeli, Cramer, Zanardini and others assisted in the same direction. These works mark the passing over into the third distinct taxonomic period which may be said to have begun with Thuret and Bornet and which has continued down to our own times. Its earlier inquiry into the nature of the reproductive bodies dates from Thuret's classic researches on the zoospores and antheridia of the algae (1845-1855). This was continued into the discoveries as to the modes of development of the cystocarp in the red algæ and all came as a culmination of the similar work by Pringsheim, Naegeli and others. The magnificent "Notes Algologiques" (1876, 1880) and "Etudes Phycologiques" (1878) will long remain as examples of the finest contributions along these various lines of histolog The ical and developmental researches. progress along this line has led to other studies of histological and developmental details. These in turn have led up to the present condition, when it seems desirable to make a new and more detailed study of all species, but especially of those credited with a wide geographical distribution or with great variability. The third and latest period of taxonomic development has resulted in a newer view of specific limitation, in other words, has resulted in specific segregation being carried to a much greater degree than hitherto, yet seemingly not beyond reasonable limits. The results may be seen from Kjellman's treatment of Galaxaura (1900), Falkenberg's treatment of the Rhodomelacea (1901), A. and E. Gepp's treatment of the Codiacea (1911), Sauvageau's treatment of the Sphacelariacea (1900-1914), Howe's treatment of Halimeda and other genera (1905-1914) as well as of other groups, Foslie's treatment of the crustaceous corallines, Boergesen's treatment of the algæ of the Danish West Indies (19131916), my own treatment of Scinaia (1914), and others. In my own study of various genera of the red algæ, both from the point of view of morphological differences and of geographical distribution, it is necessary to more carefully distinguish and separate the true species in the case of many aggregates and to scrutinize very carefully those species credited with extended or widely discontinuous distribution. The results throw a much clearer light on certain seemingly troublesome points of geographical distribution, both climatic and topographical. The anatomical and histological aspects of the morphology of the marine algae were earlier treated of in connection with the taxonomy. In the first period of taxonomy, the study of the structure both of the vegetative and reproductive portions was slight, although some progress was made through Reaumur (1711), Stackhouse, Turner and others. In the second taxonomic period, Lamouroux gave a great impetus to the study of structure and the distinctions between the different methods of fructification and towards the last of this second period the knowledge of structure was placed on a fairly firm basis. It was during the third taxonomic period that the study of morphology may really be said to have originated as a separate subject and much of the credit for properly emphasizing it came from Thuret, both by his own publications and by those in connection with Bornet. Since then many special papers dealing with the adult or developmental morphology have been published. lished. Cytological work, too, has been carried on to a considerable extent. The cell membranes have been studied by Correns and others; the chromatophores by Schmitz and his successors; various cell contents, including the plasma massing in the cells of iridescent marine alge by Berthold and others. The study of the nucleus and its division has engaged the attention of many investigators from Schmitz (1879) through Fairchild, Swingle, Farmer, Strasburger, Osterhout, Williams, Wille, B. M. Davis and Oltmanns. Yamanouchi and Svedelius, in particular, have investigated the chromosome number in connection with the alternation of generations of red algæ. The morphology, both gross and minute, of holdfasts, vegetative and reproductive organs, have been, and still are being, given most careful attention, in connection with taxonomic, physiological and ecological investigations. While most attention has been turned towards the morphology and development of the marine algæ, their special physiology has received some attention. By far the greater portion, however, remains to be done. It is impossible to more than call attention to some main lines of work in this communication. The physiological effects of the pigments by Gaidukov, Rosanoff, Reinke, Schütt and Kylin; metabolic activities of various sorts such as those dealt with by Loew and Bokorny, by Hansen, Wille, Arber, Artari and a host of other investigators; the physiology of reproductive processes by Klebs; the method of production of lime incrustations by Lütgeb; the influence of external surroundings by Oltmanns. The physiologico-anatomical researches of Wille and his pupils may be mentioned here. The influence of light, temperature, specific gravity of the sea water, chemical stimuli, etc., have been touched upon by various authors, but these important physiological bases for explaining the facts of geographical distribution and particularly of ecological distribution are still most obscure. To deal with the geographical distribution of plants it must be recognized that there are several methods of approach, and in dealing with the geographical distribution of the marine algæ, the methods of approach are, in general, the same as those used in dealing with other plants. The first efforts are floristic and usually largely taxonomic. Species are defined more and more accurately and floras are made out for larger or smaller coast lines. Then comes a comparison of floras with one another as to percentages of common or differing species. Cosmopolitan or widespread species are discussed, as are also endemic species, or at least species of more restricted areas and finally the comparison of floras leads to a discussion of the relation of floras as to origin, spread, etc. Less has been done in the floristics of marine algæ than in that of terrestrial plants. There are comparatively few floras, although many lists have been published. One of the earliest marine floras or lists was that of Goodenough and Woodward for the British Fuci (1797) in which only 72 species were described. This was followed by that of Turner (1802), who enumerated and described 78 species. These included only the species of Fucus as then understood. Greville in his Alge Brittanicæ (1830) greatly increased the number and Harvey in the two editions of his Manual (1841 and 1849) as well as in the Phycologia Brittanica (1846-1851) brought the number up to 388, while Holmes and Batters in their lists of British Algæ (1890, 1891) enumerate 557 species. C. A. Agardh's Synopsis Algarum Scandinaviæ (1817) is another early algal flora as is also Lyngbye's "Tentamen Hydrophytologica Danica" (1819). More modern is the "Algues Marines du Cherbourg" (1864) of A. Le Jolis and one which has had great influence as a model. One of the earliest accounts to contain a direct comparison between a particular marine flora and other marine floras is Farlow's "Marine Alge of New England" (1881), in which the comparison is made in the percentage of species between the various subdivisions of the New England coast and also between them and the flora of various parts of Europe, of the Arctic Regions and of the Pacific Coast of North America. Martens (1866) had previously made such a comparison in detailed list between various divisions of the tropical marine flora. Other writers have attempted to classify floras as to their content of species common to or characteristic of other regions as well as those confined to their own region. The most formally floristic papers as to geographical distribution of marine algæ are those of George Murray on "A Comparison of the Marine Floras of the Warm Atlantic, Indian Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope" (1894) and of George Murray and E. S. Barton on "A Comparison of the Arctic and Antarctic Marine Floras" (1895). These papers deal with the percentage of endemic species and |