1886.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. ' 11 



Iq the development of the stamen we read in the same lan- 

 guage. The lower leaf from which the short though main 

 peduncle in the inflorescence appears, is typified by the petal. 

 The common peduncle is represented by the filament, and the 

 cup-like gland at the middle stands for the bracteole of the bi- 

 ped icels. Here one of the flower buds probably the outermost 

 and weakest in the normal development wholly disappears, the 

 innermost becomes the upper part of the filament, the next node 

 may be at the connective, and then the theoretical floral leaves 

 proceed to form the anther. The incised bract is reduced to 

 the fringed cup-like gland from which the stamen proper springs. 



A close examination of the stamen gives some further facts in 

 support of this theoretical view. When a branchlet is produced 

 from a branch, it is necessarily more slender than the parent 

 branch. The upper half of the Maliernia filament is more slender 

 than the part beneath the gland, and, while the lower portion is 

 smooth and membranous, the upper is minutely hispid variations 

 which we might only expect in distinct internodes. Only for its 

 actual office in supporting and appearing in the direct line of the 

 stamen, we might critically call the lower portion a peduncle, and 

 the portion above the gland the stamen proper. 



And we may conclude, after a whole studj' of the subject, that 

 in many cases superimposed stamens are the development of 

 theoretical axial buds at the base of the petals, and not the result 

 of an interjection of an extra whorl of leaves for which there 

 would be no warrant in phyllotaxy. 



January 19. 

 The President, Dr. Leidt, in the chair. 

 Fourteen persons present. 



Mastodon and Llama from Florida. Prof. Leidy directed 

 attention to some fossil bones, being part of a collection now at 

 the Biological Department of the IJniversity, recently received 

 for examination from the Director of the U. S. Geoloa-ical 

 Survey. The collection was made by Mr. W. H. Dall, near Archer, 

 Florida, in a locality discovered by Dr. J. C. Neal, who had pre- 

 viously sent specimens to the Smithsonian Institution, and others 

 directly to Prof. Leidy for identification. Some of these speci- 

 mens had been brought to the notice of the Academy, as indicating 

 a species of rhinoceros and of a horse, to the former of which 

 the name of R. proterus was given, and to the latter that of Hip- 

 potheriuni ingenuum. In the collection recently received are 

 numerous bones and well-preserved teeth of the rhinoceros, mostly 

 limb bones, among which are fourteen well-preserved astragali. 



Some of the specimens exhibited are those of a mastodon, 

 apparently a previously undescribed form, although upwards of 



