102 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



1 have studied the development of Manayunkia, which will be fully de- 

 described iu a future memoir on the animal. Curiously enough the develop- 

 ment of the young takes place within the tube of the parent, and the young 

 remain in this position for a considerable time after their development. Thus 

 1 have obtained the young from the tube of the parent, after it was one-third 

 of a line in length, and consisted of ten annuli, including the head, from 

 which projected ten tentacles. 



Mil. Thomas Meehan said that last year he had called the attention of the 

 Academy to the fact that Gymnocladus and some other plants had a series of 

 buds, not in the usual order of Phyllotaxis, accordant with the leaves, as we 

 have believed axillary buds ought to be ; but in a direct line, one above an- 

 other ; and that in these cases the upper bud, the one the farthest removed 

 from the axil, was the strongest bud. He had overlooked the fact long known 

 to botanists, until pointed out by Dr. Engelman, that Lonicera had this longi- 

 tudinal string of buds ; but in this case the largest bud was the one nearest 

 the axil. He had since noted that these buds all followed the same law in 

 this, that it was the large buds which had a flower-producing character, while 

 the small ones were those which continued the axial growth. 



By the help of this last observation he was now able to explain some facts 

 in Solanaceous plants which he believed had not hitherto been understood. It 

 was 'well known that many of these had a habit of producing their flower 

 scapes at varying positions between the nodes, and not at the nodes, as is usual 

 with most flowering plants. He exhibited specimens of the common Cherry 

 Tomato, in which a few of the flower clusters sprang apparently opposite to 

 a node, but the majority were at least one-fourth of the way down to the node 

 below ; also other species of the genus, in which the flower peduncle pushed 

 out almost down to the lower axil. This was especially the case in some Egg 

 plants, wherein the leaf axil, the axillary bud, and the bud producing the 

 flower peduncle, were closely together in a direct line, as in Gymnocladus, be- 

 fore noted. The point to which he wished the particular attention of the 

 members was that this intern odular flower bud really belonged to the system 

 of buds apparently originating at the node below. 



He then showed that the flowering character of Solarium had a numerical 

 law of its own. Every third node produced a flower spike or cluster. 

 The node next following the flower had barely the rudiment of an axillary 

 bud; the second one bad a stronger bud; the third had a bud which in the 

 Tomato and Eggplant pushed again into axillary growth, and had the extra 

 bud beyond, before noted the flowering one. Other Solanaceous plants had 

 similar characters, which, unless we remembered what we had learned in 

 these common Solanums, we might not understand. For instance, in Nycte- 

 rium viola ceum the two nodes between the flowering one approached very close 

 together, so as to appear nearly opposite, but still one axillary bud stronger 

 than the other. In Datura all three nodes approached and formed a sort of 

 fascicle with the flower proceeding from the irregular centre of the mass. 



He now exhibited some specimens of the common Poke weed, Phytolacca 

 decandra, and showed that the inflorescence was exactly on the same law. 

 The flower raceme only appeared at every third node, and sometimes was as 

 much as a quarter of an inch above the node. It was directly in a line with 

 the lower bud, as in the cases of Gymnocladus, Lonicera, Solanum, &c, and there 

 was no difficulty in assuming that the flower spike had really belonged to the 

 lower system, just as in the other cases. The ratio of vigor in the axillary 

 buds was just the same. The leaf opposite or near by the raceme had scarcely 

 any axillary bud; the next stronger; the next strong enough to push into a 

 secondary axillary growth ; and then the flower above this. In this we saw 

 Phytolacca to have the same characters as Solanaceous plants. The seeds of 

 Phytolacca were of very similar structure to Solanum, and it had many other 

 characters in common. He was not prepared to speak positively without fur- 



[Sept. 



