BULLETIN 



OF THE 



rORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



Vol. VI I.J New York. February, 1880- [No. 2. 



§ 5. Proceedings of the Torrey Club.— The regular monthly meet- 

 ing of the Chib was held at the '* Herbarium/' Columbia College, Tues- 

 day evening, Feb. 10, In the absence of the President and Vice- 

 President, Mr. J. D. Plyatt was called to the Chair. There were 24 

 members and 4 visitors present. 



The following errors in the minutes, which also crept into 

 our preceding report, were corrected : Stellaria 7nedia^ not Cerastium 

 arvense, was found in flower Jan. nth; and the double-bracted Cormis 

 was exhibited by Mr. Schrenk, not by Mr. Britton, as stated, 



Mr, LeRoy exhibited a specimen in flower of Sarracenia flai)a^ L,, 

 the roots of which had been brought from the swamps of South Car- 

 olina. 



Mr. Wright oi Staten Island exhibited a black-flowered Iris, 

 raised from a bulb direct from Egypt. 



Mr. J. D. Hyatt exhibited a remarkable and beautiful woody 



gall, the leaf-like lobes of which were curiously carved and almost 



seemed executed by the hand of an artist. The specimen came 

 from Mexico. 



Mr. Hollick, in behalf of the Map Committee, presented a large 

 geological map of the district embraced within the limits of the Torrey 

 Catalogue, the joint work of himself and Mr. Britton. 



The Case Committee reported that the new case for the herbarium 

 of the club had been purchased, and was now ready for the inspection 

 of members. 



Mr. Samuel Henshaw was elected a member; and the names of 

 two other persons were proposed for membership. 



At the suggestion of Mr. Leggett, Mr. W. R. Gerard was elected 

 assistant editor of the Bulletin. 



Dr. Jarvis read a paper on ^' Galls." The author, who has made 

 a life-long study of these organisms, briefly reviewed the opinions 

 that have been held in regard to their formation from the earliest 

 times up to the present, and boldly took issue with Darwin, Huxley 

 and others in regard to the statement that these excrescences were of 

 insect origin. He asserted that these gentlemen had merely accepted 

 the statements of others without personal investigation of the facts. 

 Dr. Jarvis claimed, and it was the object of his paper to prove, that 

 all galls are normal productions of the plants on which they grow; 

 and that these productions, by a species of evolutions of the pro- 

 toplasm contained within them, eventually g ^/-^ birth to animal life. 

 The life history of these beings, from the formation of the primordial 

 utricle up to the period when they make their egresi. 'n a perfect state 

 from the zoocarp (as the author styles the gall), was minutely 

 described by means of large diagrams and numerous specimens of 

 galls derived from various plants. 



