134 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [March, 



Heilprin, Clavella hubbardanus ? Harris, Latirus tortilis Whitfield, 

 Fusoficula juvenis Whitfield, Calyptraphorus velatus var. compressus 

 Aldr., Turritella humerosa var. elicitatoides n. var., Turritella nerinexa 

 Harris, Turritella mortoni Conrad, Mesalia pumila var. allentonensis 

 Aldr., Calyptraia aperta Sol., Natica cf. semilunata Lea var., Den- 

 talium microstria Heilprin. The same place of origin is indicated 

 for the genera Rimella and Venerupis. The latter genus is now 

 extinct in the Atlantic. 



Interesting and ancestral forms of other genera, as Pholas and 

 Pleurotoma, were also found at Soldado. 



The Soldado faunas thus demonstrate that the Eocene of the 

 Gulf coast, just like its recent molluscan fauna, contained a large 

 Antillean element and that the lower Tertiary North American 

 faunas were made up in great measure of immigrants from the shores 

 of northeastern South America. 



William J. Holland, Sc.D., LL.D.: "David Alter, the First Dis- 

 coverer of Spectrum Analysis." 



Dr. Holland called attention to the fact that five years before 

 Kirchhoff, the celebrated German physicist, had announced the 

 possibility of determining the various elements by Frauenhofer's 

 lines in the spectrum, Dr. David Alter had published in the American 

 Journal of Science the results of his observations upon the spectrum, 

 showing the possibility of determining the presence through the 

 spectrum of various metals and gases. Dr. Alter's communications 

 had been extensively reproduced in foreign scientific journals at 

 dates preceding the publication by Kirchhoff of his discovery. 



Dr. Holland exhibited the prism made by Dr. Alter with which 

 he had conducted his investigations. 



John W. Harshberger, Ph.D.: " The Vegetation of the Banana 

 Holes of Florida." 



The eastern coast of Florida south of the sand hills at Delray is 

 characterized by extensive outcrops of limestone known as Miami 

 oolite. The surface of this Miami oolite weathers into angular nodules 

 of lime rock and by water solution is eaten into pot holes of greater 

 or less depth known as banana holes. These reach to the water 

 table beneath the surface and have been filled with sand and organic 

 debris until a soil has been formed which supports a vegetation 

 distinct from that of the adjacent pine land. The soil of these sinks, 

 which vary greatly in diameter, is more retentive of moisture than 

 the porous soil of the pine land, so that the vegetation of broad- 

 leaved trees and associated herbs is essentially mesophytic, while 

 that of the pine land is essentially xerophytic. Most of the banana 

 holes contain standing water during a part of the year. 



The occupancy of these pot holes by the migration of plants into 

 them is purely fortuitous, but the survival of any species, carried 

 there by wind, water, and birds, is conditioned solely by the amount 



