May, 1914.] Meeting of Biological Club. 331 



1. Dioscorea villosa L. Wild Yam. Stems slender and 

 twining, G tc 15 feet long; rootstocks slender, horizontal, woody; 

 leaves heart-shaped, 9 to 13 nerved, acmninate at the apex, thin 

 green, glabrous on top, sometimes pubescent beneath, 2 to 6 inches 

 long, 1 to 4 inches wide, petioled; petiole often longer than the 

 blade. Flowers greenish-yellow, the staminate 1-16 to | inch 

 long in drooping panicles 3 to (i inches long; the carpellate 3-16 

 inch long in drooping racemes. Capsules membranous, strongly 

 3 winged. General. 



2. Dioscorea bulbifera L. Air Potato. Twining vines; 

 leaves about 2 inches long and 2 tc 3 inches broad, petioled, the 

 petiole longer than the blade, halbard-shaped , acuminate at the 

 apex, thin, green, 9-nerved. Flowers greenish, in loose axillary 

 racemes. Tubers in the axils of the leaves. Tropical Asia. 

 Escaped from gardens in Aladison county. 



MEETINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL CLUB. 



Orton Hall, January 12, 1914. 



The meeting was called to order by the President at 7:30 

 and the minutes were read and approved. The following were 

 elected to membership: Norman Sherer, Floyd De Lashmut, 

 Clayton Long, Maxwell Scarff, Margurite Ickes, Francis E. 

 Piper, Harold Peebles and Christian R. Gaiser. 



The first paper of the evening was by Prof. Durrant, on the 

 Biology of the Guinea Pig. Prof. Durrant kept Prof. Barrows' 

 Guinea pigs during the summer when the observations presented 

 were made. The Guinea pig belongs to the order of Rodentia, 

 to which order also belongs the water-pig of South America, which 

 sometimes reaches a length of five or six feet and a height of 

 eighteen or twenty inches. The Guinea pig is very prolific, the 

 period of gestation being 66 or 67 days. The time of mating 

 after birth is from five days to several weeks. The female is 

 from 42 to 62 days old at the time of mating. As to the number 

 of young in a litter. Prof. Durrant made several observations 

 of which the following are the results: 



Four litters of two each, twelve litters of three each, three 

 litters of four each. 



There is a great variation in the size of the young, but no 

 relation between the size and the number in the litter. 



In one case he had a rough coat female crossed with a white 

 male, which produced a white, red and black oft'spring. The 

 same parents at a later time had a yellow rough coat young 

 one. 



