NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 71 



hrol ;,! q appears M t0 b o e . fr0 u m an 0,d individual ; the teeth have all been shed or 

 broken away No. 2 is the most robust specimen. The uppermost tooth hat 

 SosHion 6 ^ no \ re P la r d - The bone is aot excavated in pits beneath Z 



Position of the contained teeth. No. 3 has the upper tooth shed and the bone 

 perforated in its position. The lower three teeth are retained, but half worn 

 away. Jn No. 4 the bone is perforated in the position of the upper shed tooth 

 misos. 5 and 6 the bone is perforated in the position of the upper shed tooth 

 and deep pits exist beneath the position of the two teeth below 



bince communicating the above, Prof. Hayden presented a specimen of a 

 pharyngeal bone of the same fish from Castle Creek, Idaho. 



June 28(h. 

 The President, Dr. Ruschenberger, in the Chair. 

 Thirteen members present. 



July 5th, 1870. 

 The President, Dr. Ruschenberger, in the Chair. 



Fifteen members present. 



The following papers were presented for publication : 



"Remarks on Huxley's Classification of Birds." By T. Hale 

 Streets. 



" On the Stipules of Magnolia and Liriodendron." By Thomas 

 Meehan. 



The resignation of Mr. Gilbert Coombs as a member was read 

 and accepted. 



Mr. Meehan exhibited some specimens of Rumex oblongifolius, a naturalized 

 Dock from Europe. He said that so far as he could ascertain from European 

 specimens, and the descriptions of Babington, Bromfield and other English 

 botanists, the plant was there hermaphrodite; but here, as correctly stated by 

 Dr. Asa Gray, it was monoeciously polygamous. He thought the fact that 

 plants hermaphrodite in one country becoming unisexual in another, was 

 worthy of more attention by those engaged in the study of the laws of sex 

 than had been given to it. This Rumex did not stand alone; R. crispus and 

 R. patient a exhibited the same thing. Fragaria was another instance well 

 known to horticulturists, although the fact scientifically had not received due 

 weight. The average tendency of the strawberry in Europe was to herma- 

 phrodism, here to produce pistillate forms. 



He also called attention to the fact that in these American specimens uni- 

 sexuality was in proportion to axial vigor. This law he had already explained 

 in times past to the Academy, and new instances were scarcely necessary. 

 Here, however, the moderately weak plant had more hermaphrodite flowers 

 than the strong one ; and in both classes of specimens the number of male 

 flowers gradually increased with the weakening of the axis, until the ends of 

 the raceme were almost wholly of male flowers. The first flowers on the 

 strong verticels were usually wholly pistillate. 



Prof. Cope inquired whether the facts now noted by Mr. Meehan did not 

 conflict with those he had before brought to the notice of the ty in 



coniferous plants? He understood that in them the female Bowers wire at 

 the apex of the young shoots, and the male flowers in lower and more exti 

 positions. 



Mr. Meehan replied that the facts were identical in both instances in this, 



1870.] 



