PLANT SCIENCE BULLETIN

VOLUME 6   JUNE 1960   NUMBER 3

P. S. B. S. A. - The Oldest Organization of

Paleobotanists in the World

BY ALFRED TRAVERSE'

During the IX International Botanical Congress in Mont-real, a festive luncheon was held to commemorate a quarter-century of paleobotanical activity in the Botanical Society of America. Present were about sixty members of the Paleobotanical Section of the Botanical Society (P. S. B. S. A.), and a dozen or so distinguished foreign paleobotanists, including five of the seven paleobotanists who have been nominated by the Section and elected by the Botanical Society to corresponding membership, namely: T. M. Harris (Reading University, England), Richard Krāusel (Natur-Museum Senckenberg, Germany), Suzanne LeClercq (University of Liege, Belgium), H. Hamshaw Thomas (Cam-bridge University, England), and John Walton (Glasgow University, Scotland). The two corresponding members who could not be present were Isabel Cookson (University of Melbourne, Australia) and Rudolf Florin (Hortus Bergianus, Sweden).

It was especially propitious that Dr. Thomas could be present, as it was approximately a quarter-century since his past previous visit to North America had played a part in stimulating a group of American paleobotanists to organize the Paleobotanical Section. Appropriately, Dr. Thomas was elected to corresponding membership in Montreal by the Botanical Society just before the anniversary luncheon of the Section, and the honor could be announced at the luncheon.

In billing this luncheon as the Quarter-Century Lunch-eon, it will be noted that the writer, then secretary of the Section, was playing it a little carefully. I did not say 25th anniversary, because it depends on what is counted as the starting point.

The founding father of the Section in the years 1934-36, was Loren C. Petry, then of Cornell University, now retired. Professor Petry was Secretary of the Botanical Society from 1933 to 1936 and was unquestionably a "friend at court" for paleobotany. He interested several other paleobotanists in the idea of banding together as a section of the Botanical Society. Paleobotanical contributions at the Society's meetings had customarily been presented before the General Section, as in 1935 when C. B. Read was invited to report on his early studies on phosphatized plant material from the New Albany shale at the St. Louis meeting. The initial discussions that led to formal organization of the Section

'Shell Development Company, Houston, Texas were held in 1934 and 1935. The idea was enhanced, as mentioned above, by the visit to the U. S. A. of Dr. H. Hamshaw Thomas in the fall of 1934, culminating in an informal gathering at the Wm. Penn Hotel one evening during the Pittsburgh meeting of the Society.

Botanical Society Council minutes for the 3oth Annual Meeting, at Washington University, St. Louis, 31 December, 1935—2 January, 1936, include an item: "The Secretary reported a movement on the part of several of the younger members interested in paleobotany to ask for the formation of a paleobotanical section. The Council informally ex-pressed its hearty approval of such action." The minutes for the corresponding meeting at Atlantic City, 29-31 December, 1936, include an item, "The Secretary reported plans for the organization of a Paleobotanical Section of the Society. The Council voted its approval of the proposal to organize such a Section."

Whether one accepts the initial decision of the paleobotanists to organize, in 1934, or the final acceptance of the proposal, in 1936, the P. S. B. S. A. is the oldest formal organization of paleobotanists in the world (see Just, 1957). Table 1 lists the paleobotanical activities of the Society and meetings of the Section, starting with the Pittsburgh meeting of 1934.

The Section has increased from about a dozen original members to approximately ten times that number today. The short history of the Section has been a metamorphosis from an almost exclusively academic group at the beginning, to an organization including many paleobotanists employed by industrial and governmental organizations. This is in large part a result of the coming into importance of fossil spores and pollen as a stratigraphic tool in geologic exploration search, by the petroleum industry and others. Happily, most paleo-palynologists—the people who study plant microfossils—have realized that fossil spores and pollen present heritable biocharacters which are amenable to taxonomic treatment, that those who work with them are de facto paleo-botanists, and that their problems are really part of a spectrum that includes those of all paleobotanists. That the palynologists have stayed within the fold of the Paleobotanical Section accounts in large part for the prosperous condition of the Section today. I speak not of finances but of the volume and variety of activities sponsored. The comparatively large membership of the Section has permitted

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CHANGES OF ADDRESS: Notify the Treasurer of the Botanical Society of America, Inc., Dr. A. J. Sharp, Department of Botany, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 16, Tennessee.

Subscriptions for Libraries and persons not members of the Botanical Society are obtainable at the rate of $2.00 a year. Send orders with checks payable to "Botanical Society of America, Inc." to the Editor.

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COMMENT

There was a news release April 26 throughout the press in the United States, a rather lengthy article regarding a research fund to be called the "Bartlett Memorial Exploration Fund" which is to be created in honor of the late Professor of Botany Harley H. Bartlett. The account states that the fund is to be administered by the Institute for Regional Exploration of which Ted Bank is director.

I wish to point out that there is a fund established at the University of Michigan in 1955 at the time of Professor Bartlett's retirement which is officially set up in the Ac-counting Department of the University and is entitled the Harley H. Bartlett Plant Exploration Fund. It continues to be supported by his former students, friends and col-leagues. Grants have been made every summer since 1955 to support the field expenses of promising undergraduate students in Botany and beginning graduate students.

I am not certain of the nature or aims of the Institute for Regional Exploration, but it should be made clear that it has no connection with the University of Michigan and that its proposed "Bartlett Memorial Exploration Fund" is in no way to be confused with the fund established and supported by the botanists of the University.

K. L. JONES, Chairman Department of Botany University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Herbarium Specimens from Ghana Offered

Mr. O. B. Dokosi, of the Mawuli Secondary School, P. O. Box 45, Ho, Volta Region, GHANA, is interested in sending herbarium specimens from his part of the world to institutions in the United States which may require them. The specimens will not be for sale, but the terms under which these specimens will be sent and any expenses that the institution will have to pay will be discussed mutually.

P. S. B. S. A.

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sponsorship of activities that would have been impossible for any one segment of the group alone, say the palynologists alone or the Paleozoic paleobotanists alone.

During the first ten years of the organization's existence, scientific sessions were mostly programs of contributed papers, on a very wide range of paleobotanical subjects. In the post-World War II era, these programs have continued, accompanied in most years by field trips in the area where the Botanical Society's annual meeting was held. Recent examples of these field trips have been the 1957 trip to famous Tertiary localities in northern California, led by H. D. MacGinitie, and the 1958 trip to Paleozoic localities in Indiana, led by G. K. Guennel. Both of these trips were carefully planned and arranged, well attended and memorable affairs. In addition to the regular sessions for contributed papers, the Section has sponsored a number of significant symposia and special events. The first of ten symposia the Section has sponsored was held at the Columbus meeting in 1939 and included a significant address on the evolution of the vascular plants, by E. C. Jeffrey. In Chicago in 1947 the Paleobotanical Section, and the Society for the Study of Evolution, arranged a symposium that was a paleobotanical high-water mark for North America. It had the title, "Evolution and Classification of Gymnosperms," and featured important papers by J. T. Buchholz, Theodor Just, Norman W. Radforth, Rudolf Florin, Henry N. Andrews, Jr., Chester A. Arnold, and Birbal Sahni, who presented his memorable synthesis paper on the Pentoxyleae. At the New York meeting in 1949 the Section co-sponsored with the Microbiological Section a symposium, "Micro-biology in Relation to the Geologic Accumulation of Organic Complexes." In 1956, at the Storrs meeting, a symposium, "The Beginnings of the Plant World," was co-sponsored by the Paleobotanical Section, the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, and the Phycological Society of America, as well as other sections of the Botanical Society. All of the participants in the symposium were members of the Paleobotanical Section.

The trend in paleobotany toward more and more concern with plant microfossils has been reflected in the Section's program of recent years. At the East Lansing meeting in 1955 and at the Storrs meeting in 1956, the Section made a memorable contribution to fossil pollen and spore systematics by special programs on the nomenclature and classification of plant microfossils. At the Palo Alto meeting in 1957 and at the Bloomington meeting in 1958, the Section played host to and helped organize the Fourth National Pollen Conference, and the Fifth National Pollen Conference, respectively. The 1958 Pollen Conference included papers on an especially wide range of palynological subjects, from Paleozoic to modern. The Section has recently co-sponsored with the Paleontological Society in Pittsburgh, on November 3, a wide-ranging program on fossil pollen, spores, hystrichosphaerids, and allied fossil types, entitled, "Stratigraphic and Ecologic Interpretation of Plant Micro-

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fossils in Petroleum Geology." This program was arranged by J. M. Schopf. It demonstrated the increasing emphasis on plant microfossils in the laboratories of the various major oil companies. The impression should not be created, how-ever, that the Paleobotanical Section is merely climbing on the Palynological band wagon, now that the field is economically successful. As long ago as 1941, at the Dallas meeting, nine of the papers on the Section's program dealt with plant microfossils!

The recent meeting with the Paleontological Society was significant in illustrating that the Paleobotanical Section has reached a degree of maturity unusual for a Section of a parent Society. The P. S. B. S. A. has proceeded in many respects as if it were an independent society. Its bylaws provide for the arrangement of joint meetings with other groups, such as the one just described. Membership in the Section is in two classes, active members, who must be Botanical Society members, and affiliate members, who need not be. Affiliate members have all the privileges of the Section, except those of voting and holding office. Paleobotany is a borderline field between geology and botany. Some paleobotanists who consider themselves primarily geologists do not wish to belong to the Botanical Society. It is for these persons that affiliate membership is intended. About 25 percent membership of about 120 are affiliate members. percent of the present membership of about Izo are affiliate members. Persons who begin association with the Section as affiliates often later decide to apply for full membership in the Society.

Association of paleobotanists with the Botanical Society is a most desirable arrangement. The Society imposes no burdens or assessments on the Section, yet provides a vehicle for its meetings and an outlet for publication of papers, through the Society's American Journal of Botany. The Section serves as a focal organization of professional paleobotanists in North America and provides a forum for expression of opinion, in which all paleobotanical interests are represented. Paleobotanists who are not already in the Section and who are interested in membership should write to the secretary, Dr. Theodore Delevoryas, Osborn Botanical Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

Acknowledgments: The author would like to acknowledge the advice and encouragement of Dr. James M. Schopf, Dr. Henry N. Andrews, Jr., and Dr. Loren C. Petry, who have helped make much of the history of the Paleobotanical Section.

Literature Cited

Just, T., "Fifty Years of Paleobotany, 1906-1956." Amer jour. Bot., 44: 1: 93-99, 1957.

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