NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 4 13 



physiological facts had recently been brought to light by Mr. 

 Francis Parkman, of Cambridge, Mass., the eminent historian and 

 good botanist. He had endeavored to hybridize a number of 

 species of Lily with the Japan L. auratum. To guard against the 

 chance of fertilization by their own pollen, the anthers were cut 

 from the flowers before they had perfected, and other precautions 

 taken. There seemed to be no chance of any result but to pro- 

 duce hybrids, or not to seed at all, according to all that has been 

 heretofore known of such subjects. But in eveiy case but one of 

 those which have so far blossomed, the seedlings are like the 

 female parents. There was one remarkable hybrid, and one only. 

 That the male parent should be potential for reproduction, and 

 yet powerless to transmit the slightest trace of its own character- 

 istics, he thought among the most wonderful of the recentlv dis- 

 covered facts in vegetable physiology, and would render the Ld} r 

 family an object of renewed interest. 



As remarked before, some Lilium superbum growing near the 

 others bore seeds freely, every flower perfectly, and, so far as he 

 could see, without any special aid from insect agency. He had 

 been interested in noting the remarkable manner in which the 

 seed-vessels varied. He exhibited a number of capsules, selected 

 from twenty-five plants, each plant bearing all its seed-vessels 

 exacts after the pattern of each one exhibited. Some were about 

 two inches long and linear, with rounded ends ; others of the 

 same character but with the end promorse, and giving a triquetrous 

 character to the apex. Another had the carpellary edges perfectly 

 smooth, another, perhaps, like it, with tumid raised edges. Then 

 there were lanceolate, oblong, clavate, pyriform, and almost glo- 

 bose forms. In old times many of these characters would have 

 been deemed of sufficient importance to found new species on ; in 

 times past, and in our own times under some prevailing theories, 

 the variations would be looked for under some law of external 

 influences modifying form. Without offering any opinion on 

 these points, he would simply observe that all these plants were 

 taken from one small spot at Berlin, New Jersey, and had all 

 been growing in his garden under exactly the same circumstances 

 together. 



Remarks on BMzopods. Prof. Leidy made the following re- 

 marks relating to previous communications on Rhizopods: On 

 my return, after an absence from home since last April, my atten- 

 tion has been called to a critical notice by Dr. G. C. Wallich, in 

 the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for May, 1875, page 

 3*70, on my communications to the Academy on our fresh-water 

 rhizopods. Dr. Wallich complains of my apparent inattention to 

 his own researches on the same subjects, published in the Annals 

 for 1863 and 1864. From the character of Dr. Wallich's remarks, 

 I suspect that he has not examined my communications as pub 



