280 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1886. 



green. Perhaps, like Ruskin, we should give the palm to the 

 "Milky opals tliat gleam and shine like sullen fires in a pallid 

 mist.""' 



Vitality of Mollusca. Prof. Heilprin called attention to a 

 remarkable case of vitality among certain members of the fauna 

 of the New Jersey coast. Specimens of Nassa obsoleta collected 

 by Miss Emma Walter, at Atlantic City just one year ago, and 

 i-etained dry during the entire j'ear of their accidental captivity, 

 were stated to be still alive, although subjected for several months 

 to the abnormal temperature occasioned b}'^ proximity to a heated 

 wall surface. This, the speaker contended, was perhaps the most 

 extraordinary instance of vitality known among the marine mol- 

 lusca, although among the terrestrial and freshwater forms, 

 especially among those which undergo a partial hibernation, 

 longer periods of semi-adaptation to imposed conditions have 

 been noted. Instances of such survivals were cited by the speaker 

 and Prof. Leidy. 



June 15. 

 Mr. John H. Redfield in the chair. 

 Twenty-two persons present. 



June 22. 



Mr. Thos. Meehan, Vice-President, in the chair. 



Thirteen persons present. 



A paper, entitled " Notes on the Paspali of Le Conte's Mono- 

 graph," b}^ Geo. yasey,was presented for publication. 



Note on Quercus dentata. Mr. Thomas Meehan exhibited 

 specimens of Quercus dentata with female flowers, from a speci- 

 men raised from an acorn received from Japan ten } ears ago. It 

 is of very rapid growth, being now eighteen feet high, and six 

 inches in circumference. So recently as the issue of the volume 

 of De GandolWs Prodromits, it was noted that the fruit was un- 

 known. Some account of these female flowers might have an 

 interest. Like our annual fruited oaks the flowers appear at the 

 end of the young growth, in pairs on peduncles about half an 



^ The speaker had collected at the opal mines a number of specimens of 

 minute bright white rhombohedrons showing the basal planes ; these have 

 been examined by Prof. E. S. Dana, who pronounces them alunite. Well 

 crystallized alunite is not common, and he believed this is the first time its 

 appearance has been noted in North America. 



