1886.] natural sciences op philadelphia. 273 



June 1. 



The President, Dr. Leidy, in the chair. 



Twenty-five persons present. 



The deaths of C. J. Hoffman, a member, and of C. U. Shepherd, 

 a correspondent, were announced. 



Trapa bicornis, L. Mr. Meehan called attention to the Ling 

 nut of the Chinese, of which a specimen on the table was four- 

 horned, as in the European species T. riatans, and another with 

 three. It showed that the calj'cine horns were little more than 

 bracts, and that the European species was one more highly 

 developed than the Asiatic species. 



Formation of Crowds Nest Brandies in the Cherry Tree In 

 regard to fasciated branches, or as they were familiarly called 

 "crow's nests," in trees, Mr. Meehan remarked that they might 

 be classed as different species, and perhaps each species might 

 have its own peculiar law of development. In former contribu- 

 tions to the Academy, he had explained some of the phenomena 

 attendant on fasciation in trees and plants, which gave clues as 

 to their origin. In the cherry there was a species of fasciation 

 distinct from that prevailing in most trees. In a portion of the 

 mass of branches cut from the main mass, very little of an 

 abnormal character could be noted. But on the tree itself a 

 huge mass of small branches proceeding from one common 

 branch might be noted, in striking contrast with the prevailing 

 character. The specimens exhibited were from a mass of about 

 four feet in diameter. In this there were about two hundred 

 branchlets. In one of the thickest growths of a normal charac- 

 ter, only about twenty branchlets could be counted in a similar 

 space. The weight of these fasciations was so great that the 

 masses hung like pendulums from the trees. The garden cherry 

 had for more than a century been naturalized near Philadelphia, 

 and he knew of three of these fasciations, one on each wild tree, 

 within a half mile of each other. He had not seen any on culti- 

 vated trees. They had been under his observation for years. 

 The}^ might be said to never flower. On one he had seen two 

 weak flowers last year. There were none this. The leaves are 

 attacked by a species of fungus, which Professor Farlow, of 

 Cambridge, had kindly worked out for him, and found to be 

 Exoascus Wilsneri, an European species closely allied to E. 

 deformans, the species well known as causing the disease called 

 the " curl " in the peach. Prof. Farlow states that the specimens 

 sent by Mr. Meehan gave him the first knowledge of the existence 

 of the species in America. 



