Cactus and petrified wood.—Emma E. Pirie, San Antonio, Texas. Collections of twenty-five native California plants each, for books and pamphlets relating to botany and ornithology.—P. M. Hoit, Santa Barbara, California. Holly, mistletoe, balls of sweet gum-tree, and “cross-vine,” for mounted sea-weed, star-fish, and other marine specimens.—Frank J. Engel, Montvale Springs, Tennessee. Well identified bird-skins for same. Send for lists.—L. M. Davies, 203 Newell street, Cleveland, Ohio. Petrified wood.—Wilber M. Swett, Santa Rosa, Cal. NEW AND REORGANIZED CHAPTERS. _No. _No._ _Name._ of _Address._ Members._ 967 Menominee, Mich. (A) 2 Guy Milbury. 779 Chicago, Ill. (Y) 4 Miss Alice I. Halsey, 3027½ S. Park Ave. 45 Shelbyville, Ky. (A) 6 Ross Neel. 791 St. Louis, Mo. (F) 5 Mrs. E. K. Jones, 713 Channing Ave. 347 Baltimore, Md. (C) 6 Miss Affa Gray, 428 N. Mount St. 719 Phila., Pa. (A’) 7 Herbert L. Evans, 4414 Sansom St. 557 Phila., Pa. (S) 7 Chas. Nason, 2116 Percy St. 968 Montvale Sp’gs, Tenn (A) 9 Frank J. Engel, Blount Co. 969 Cromwell, Ct. (A) 9 H. H. Barrows. 970 Stanbridge Quebec (A) 8 A. F. Sargent. 971 Mendham, N. J. (A) 11 Alvah Quimby. 110 Marshalltown, Iowa (A) 4 C. C. Trine. 13 Madison, N. J. (A) 9 Lillian H. Springer. 107 Newburyport, Mass. (A) 6 Geo. A. Noyes. 168 Buffalo, N. Y. (C) 5 Henry S. Gatley, 205 Swan St. DISBANDED. 841 Fairview, N. J. Mrs. C. W. Asbury. 506 Port Henry, N. J. John M. Thomas. 462 New Haven, Conn. (A) J. H. Haydon. Secretaries of Chapters 601-700 will kindly send in their annual reports by August 25, if possible. All are invited to join the AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION, old and young. Address all communications for this department to MR. HARLAN H. BALLARD, Lenox, Mass. THE LETTER-BOX. Contributors are respectfully informed that, between the 1st of June and the 15th of September, manuscripts can not conveniently be examined at the office of ST. NICHOLAS. Consequently, those who desire to favor the magazine with contributions will please postpone sending their MSS. until after the last-named date. The explanation of “curving” in base-ball pitching has been discussed at length in this volume of ST. NICHOLAS, and we now present to our older boy-readers, as a final contribution on the subject, these three letters from three widely separated localities. The first comes from the far West: