97 



Foods, delivered before the Field Naturalists' Club during the winter of 

 1892. The sugars are the most soluble and the simplest members of this 

 group. Their study from a chemical standpoint is exceedingly interesting, 

 especially in relation to plant life, since it is highly probable that the 

 other carbohydrates are formed from them. 



REPORT OF THE CONCHOLOGICAL BRANCH, 1893. 



Presented at the Annual Meeting, March 20, 1894. 



To the Council of the Ottawa Field Naturalist? Club. 



The leaders of this branch beg to report that while they have not 

 during the year given as much attention to the study of the shells of 

 this vicinity, as they, in duty, were probably bound to do, they have 

 nevertheless something of interest to report as the result of their obser- 

 vations. Two new shells were added to the Ottawa list during the 

 year, both discoveries having been made by the Rev. G. W. Taylor. 

 Pupa curvidens was noticed among a number of small shells taken at 

 Hull. In ponds near St. Louis Dam, the small English Planorbis 

 nautileus var. cristatus was taken for the second time on this continent. 

 It had previously been found in America only at Hamilton, where it 

 was collected three years ago by Mr. A. VV. Hanham. The occurrence 

 of this shell at Ottawa, nearly 4,000 miles from its home, indicates how 

 readily, in modern days, shells may become widely distributed. Its 

 presence in the ponds at St. Louis Dam is in great probability due to 

 the large quantity of refuse packing material, such as straw envelopes, 

 marsh grass, etc., which have for years been thrown into these ponds. 

 It may be that the shells themselves could not withstand the changes 

 to which the straw and grass would be exposed from the time it was 

 gathered in England until it was thrown into the ponds, but from the extra- 

 ordinary vitality which the eggs of molluscs are well known to possess, 

 these might continue unimpaired even under the trying circumstances 

 that must have obtained in this case. 



An important find of the exceedingly minute and rather rare 

 Vertigo milium was made in Billings's bush, one wet afternoon in August 

 on the bark of a fallen oak. Here, in ten minutes, many more 

 specimens of this shell were found than the collector had previously 



