PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 



OF 



PHILADELPHIA. 

 1874. 



January 6, 1874. 



The President, Dr. Ruschenberger, in the chair. 



Thirty-two members present. 



Dr. J. G. Hunt remarked that the structure of the Schizaea 

 piisilla differed widely from that of our other indigenous schiza- 

 ceous ferns, viz., Lygodium palmatum^ and its morphological ele- 

 ments are unlike those of our ferns in general. The barren frond 

 of Schizeea pusilla is marked on its epidermal surface with a 

 double line of stomata, and these organs extend the entire length 

 of the frond. The cells which make up the interior of this delicate 

 fern are cylindrical and vary in size, but their distinctive cha- 

 racters lie in minute projections or outgrowths from all sides of 

 the cells, and these projections meet and are articulated with cor- 

 responding outgrowth from adjoining cells, so that the cells of 

 Schizaea have penetrating between them in every direction inter- 

 cellular spaces and channels of remarkable t^egularify and beauty, 

 and so characteristic is this plan of cell-union that the botanist 

 need find no difficulty in identifying the smallest fragment of the 

 plant. This morphological peculiarity has not been noticed 

 before. 



Dimorj^hous Floivers in Passiflora. Mr. Thomas Meehan ex- 

 hibited some flowers of Passiflora qiiadrangularis, in which some 

 of them had the pistils almost wanting, while the flowers were 



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