18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



(Esophagus long, cylindrical, as wide as the succeeding intes- 

 tine. 



Measurements: Female, length 10 inches, thickness ^th line. 

 Length of tail from anal aperture |ths mm. Male, length 4 to 4^ 

 inches; thickness ^th. inch. Tail, from genital aperture, forms 

 of a circle \ a mm. in diameter. Penis |ths mm. long ; accessory 

 piece ith mm. long. 



On Increase of Power in Plants to Resist Gold. Mr. Thomas 

 Meehan referred to a tuber of Solarium Fendleri, exhibited by 

 him some months ago, and which had taken a departure towards 

 those of the common potato. He had offered some suggestions in 

 relation to the possibility of a common origin of these two spe- 

 cies ; but among the improbabilities he had classed the power of 

 resisting cold ; as, while the common potato was easily destroyed 

 by frost, Fendler's potato endured without injury a temperature 

 of zero. He had been under the impression that whatever change 

 plants might experience in the course of ages, the adaptation to 

 special temperatures was nearly if not quite unchangeable. 



A recent experience, however, suggested the possibilit}^ of more 

 change than he had supposed. During the very low temperature, 

 with the high wind of a few weeks ago, the frost to the extent of 

 two degrees or so, and for a short time, got into a green-house 

 with blooming plants, some of which were injured by it. Among 

 these were Calla, G. JEthiopica, Browallia elata, Bouvardias, Be- 

 gonias, and some others. The light frost, in the case of all but 

 the first named, destroyed the leaves, but left the flowers uninjured. 

 The flowers in their several parts are but metamorphosed leaves, 

 and thus we see that with the morphological advance of the leaf 

 to a petal came an increased physiological power to endure cold. 

 In the case of the Calla, the flowers as well as the leaves were de- 

 stroyed, illustrating the same law, as the spathe of this flower is 

 but a leaf very slightly changed, and consequently more subject 

 to the laws regulating leaf life. 



There was nothing quite new in these observations, as all must 

 remember that when the first light frost kills the Dahlias, Chrys- 

 anthemums, and other tender plants, the petals would often re- 

 main uninjured after the leaves had been blackened by frost; and 

 also the fact that when the leaves of plants became still more 

 highly metamorphosed, and became seeds, those of the tenderest 

 plants would often endure considerable cold. Thus the seeds of 

 the common Gonvolmdus or morning glor} 7 , and of the Balsam 

 or lady's slipper, as it is called in American gardens, would live 

 out in the earth in our severe climate and grow in the spring, 

 though the plants would be killed by a single degree of frost. 



The subject was attracting some attention just now through a 

 paper of Professor De Candolle, abstracts of which were now going 

 through scientific serials, in which he is made to say that in the 



