300 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



July 1. 

 The President, Dr. Ruschenberger, in the chair. 

 Sixteen members present. 



Sex in Rhus cotinus. Mr. Thomas Meehan said JRhus cotinus, 

 the common mist tree, was described as having perfect flowers. 

 In a large quantity of seedlings growing on his grounds he found 

 thej'^ were dia3cious. There was not much novelty in this, as it 

 was now generally conceded that most if not all plants called 

 b}' old botanists polygamous, were practically dicecioiis, for what 

 appeared to be perfect flowers had either the male or female 

 flowers entirely inoperative. But in this case the distinction had 

 a practical value to ornamental planters, for he had found that 

 except in very rare instances onl}' the female plants produced the 

 hairy pedicles known as mist. Occasionally a male panicle of extra 

 viabilit}' would produce a few short hairs. In general the panicle 

 of male flowers died.awaj^as soon as the flowers faded. This 

 fact also illustrated his A'iew of the relative viability of the sexes. 

 One might say of this, as has been said of other illustrations, that 

 of course things die when their work is done. The male having 

 nothing more to do does not need so much vitalit}' as the female, 

 which has to live on, as it has much more woric to do. But this 

 reasoning he thought favors his own views, and seems so unanswer- 

 able, that it ought, years ago, to have suggested to some mind 

 the true law of vitalit}' in its relation to sex as it had done to his 

 own. It was enough for him that his facts were self-evident, that 

 there was not as much force spent on the production of male as 

 of female flowers. 



In the production of seed in Rhus cotinus, he also noted that 

 often two cai'pels were fully developed, and in some few cases three, 

 thus forming a three-celled capsule. 



July 8. 

 The President, Dr. Ruschenberger, in the chair. 

 Seventeen members present. 

 Mr. Gentry made the following remarks : 



In some genera of Composite plants with ligulate ray and 

 tulnilar disk florets, the discoid t3-pc has been occasionally ob- 

 served in abnormal developments. A case of the kind came 

 under ni}- notice recently, while examining a plant of Rudbeckia 

 hirta, in which the ray florets were all tubular. The structure of 



