Third Century.
215, Tioga Centre, N. Y. We have been steadily progressing in our department—botany. Last autumn we made asters a specialty, and succeeded in collecting and analyzing fourteen species and two varieties. We are now ready to exchange promptly.—Angie Latimer, Sec.
220, De Pere, Wis. (C.) Chapter C has disbanded. Please scratch our number out.—Jessie R. Jackson.
[But we hope the Chapter will "jump into another bush," so we can "scratch them in again!"]
234, New York, (G). We have joined Chapter 87, New York (B),—F. W. Roos, 335 W. 27th street.
238, Winterset, Iowa. One of our charter members is dead; one is in Oregon; two are away at college; one is in Mississippi. In fact, there is nothing left of our Chapter. I am sorry, for I think the Association work is a very great benefit to the members.—Harry C. Wallace.
[Our correspondent will remember that by our present rules even one active member is allowed to maintain the honor, and retain the number and name of a Chapter once properly organized. We shall be disappointed if we do not meet him on the 24th of next August, at Davenport, Iowa, as the representative of a reorganized and efficient Chapter.]
246, Bethlehem, Pa. We are in a very flourishing condition, and now have fifteen members. Our cabinet is crowded with specimens, all in good condition. We occupy a pleasant room rented by the Chapter. We shall enter the coming season with undiminished enthusiasm for the study of Nature.
248, Richmond, Va. An informal meeting was held, and twenty-three of us boys were enrolled as members of a Chapter of the A. A. We elected our teacher, Miss Jennie Ellett, President. Committees were appointed to draft by-laws, build cabinets, etc. Instead of forming a new society, Mrs. Marshall has kindly consented to let us reorganize Chapter 248.—W. T. Terry, Sec., 109 E. Grace St.
252, Utica, N. Y. We have a most flourishing Chapter of forty-seven members. In the past year our school building was enlarged, and a room was made purposely to hold our treasures. In it is a cabinet overflowing with minerals, shells, and plants, 3 cases full of lepidoptera, a forty-dollar microscope, and a cabinet, which the boys are trying to fill with microscopical slides of their own manufacture. We have also an aquarium 12 x 24 inches, stocked with fish, newts, snails, turtles, etc., also a bird's egg cabinet that will hold several hundred specimens, and a Wardia case, 36 x 18 inches, which we are now using for hatching chrysalids. At our last meeting a cecropia "came out," measuring over six and a half inches across the wings. Our Chapter is divided into committees, each committee having a teacher for chairman. The committees are expected to furnish each week specimens representing their special branches. Of all the subjects before us the hardest "nut to crack" was, "What is a sea-bean?" but owing to indomitable perseverance, it has been most thoroughly cracked.
[Please send us the kernel!]
Agassiz's birthday was duly celebrated in the woods. Speeches were made, poems recited, and the rest of the day devoted to a grand specimen-hunt. It rained hard all day, but that could not quench the fire in this Chapter, and we returned home loaded down with treasures. We have shells, mica, and lepidoptera for exchange. The Chapter desires to express its deepest gratitude to the founder of the A. A. for two delightful years.—Frances E. Newland, Sec.
[Such a delightful report as the one which we have here condensed, is more than enough to repay one for all the labor connected with the A. A. The debt of gratitude is on the other side.]
254, Fulton, N. Y. We have started a library, and are now studying ornithology. Our membership is reduced to three, but all are active.—Herbert C. Howe.
[If three active-members understand "Reduction Ascending," they will soon reduce the membership to a dozen or more.]
256, Newton, Upper Falls, Mass. The past year has been one of gratifying progress. We number twelve. Our meetings are very interesting, each member giving an account of some object in his branch of study, often illustrating it by the specimen or describing some book he has been reading, or relating some recent personal experience. At the first meeting of each month a paper called Gatherings is read, composed of original records of personal observations. Wishing to bring our Chapter and its work to the knowledge of our friends, we have held a series of socials at the home of one of our members. The first of the evening we have devoted to talks and essays by the members of the Chapter, and later we have played games, and amused ourselves in other ways. We find this plan very beneficial, and have already gained three new members and a present of books.—Mrs. J. M. H. Smith.
[We commend this suggestive report to the earnest attention of every Chapter.]
257, Plantsville, Ct. We have made large additions to our collections. Our library also has been enlarged, and we have now nearly 100 volumes. We decide on the subject for each coming meeting in this way. Each member writes on a ballot the subject he would prefer. The ballots are then shaken in a hat, and the one drawn first is our subject. Moreover, the one whose ballot is successful must furnish a paper on that subject, and all the others bring short items on the same subject. We closed our last meeting by a collation, and singing by our glee club.—A. L. Ely, Box 219.
260, Mercer, Pa. We have not been idle, and have quite a collection. We think every Chapter should keep a scrap-book for entering reports and clippings.—Mrs. H. M. Magoffin.
272, West Town, N. Y.—Most of us are attending school away from home. We therefore disband through the winter, and then reorganize for the summer vacation, and work as much as we can, for we have farm work to do besides. Still we can study as we work, and we do this. Our minerals are all labeled and mounted. We have about 200 birds' eggs, some of them quite rare. We pride ourselves on our insects. I think we have 300, still am not positive. Our botanical specimens number 200. The work we have done, though not very great, has done us a great amount of good.—William Evans, Sec.