158 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OF 



October 13. 



The President, Dr. Ruschenberger, in the chair. 



Sixteen members present. 



The Seibert Collection of Minerals, which was completed in 

 1820, was received on deposit, and ordered to be preserved intact 

 under that name as historic evidence of scientific progress. 



Variations in Solanum Fendleri, A. G. Mr. Thomas Meehan 

 said that among other agricultural and horticultural i)lants the 

 history of the potato was not clearly known. It was said to be a 

 native of Mexico, Chili, and Peru, but he doubted whether it had 

 been found anj'where beyond all question indigenous. Solanum 

 FencUeri^ A. Gray, had much in common with S. tuheroHiim. The 

 flowers and foliage differed chiefl}^ in being much smaller in all 

 their parts. He Iiad plants under culture for eight years, but 

 could not find any variation in the shape and size of the tubers 

 until this year, when the}- have l)egun to vary in the direction of 

 the common potato. Hitherto, the tubers haA'e been round, about 

 the size of a large bullet, and i-ugose from the imperfect tuber 

 cells on the surface. Tliis season the roots have varied in the 

 direction of the common potato. They are oval and compressed, 

 and one has reached a dimension of one inch wide and two inches 

 long, and with the skin clear and semi-translucent as we see in 

 more delicate potatoes. He thinks, however, that these facts do 

 no more tlian suggest a possibility' of the unity of origin of the 

 Solanum Fendleri and Solanum tuberosum. The fact, that the 

 former tubers will endure a temperature of zero in the ground, 

 while the latter was so easil^^ destroyed b}- frost, might, indeed, 

 be considered against such possibility unless we couhl conceive 

 of some physical change coexistent with a change of ibrm. 



Crystallization in Plants. Dr. J. Gibbons Hunt remarked that 

 the subject of crystallization in plants, though not new to botan- 

 ists, is interesting because of the extreme beauty of tliese deposits, 

 and, also, an account of the obscurity of their origin and true 

 significance in the life-historj^ of the plants. The entomologist, 

 perhaps, has need for alarm, because some botanists assert that 

 some plants devour the special objects of his study; but, 1 think, 

 the mineralogist might feel equally jealous to learn that the all- 

 devouring plants were busy picking up his cr3'stals from the 

 inorganic kingdom, and using them, at least, to beautify' their 

 own tissues. 



I would ask attention, at this time, to onlv one form of plant- 



