106 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Dr. Beck and Professor Washburn commented upon the 

 Jury system, as to its origin, character, and relations to the 

 analogous institutions in ancient Greece and Rome. 



Mr. Folsom pointed oul^ the origin and history of the line, 



" Flos rubet, inque auras frustra disperdit odorem," 



which Gray had been thought by some to have plagiarized. 



Five liundred and t-wentieth Meeting. 



April 14, 1863. — Monthly Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



The Corresponding Secretary read various letters relative to 

 the exchanges of the Academy. 



Also a letter from Professor Christopher Hansteen of Chris- 

 tiania, Norway, in acknowledgment of his election as a For- 

 eign Honorary Member. 



Mr. Alexander Agassiz read a paper, of which the followiiig 

 is a summary : — 



Oil the Embryology of Asteracanthion herylinus Ag. and a 

 species allied to A. rubens M. T. Asteracanthion paUidus 

 Ag. ; by A. Agassiz. 



The following account of the development of our common star-fishes 

 is intended to appear in full, with many plates, in the fifth volume of 

 the Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of Prof. 

 Agassiz. A part of the material for the investigation was obtained by 

 artificial fecundation, and the rest by fishing for it with the dip-net 

 during the greater part of the summer of 1862. 



The larvae of our common star-fishes are found floating in large 

 numbers at night among those long trains of cast-off skins of barnacles 

 collected by the tide, which appear to provide them, as well as many of 

 our small Crustacea, hydroids, and annellids, with food during the time 

 when they swim freely about. They seem to be nocturnal, as I have 

 only found here and there a single specimen when fishing for them in 

 the daytime under exactly the same circumstances of tide and wind. 



The adult larvas move about quite rapidly by means of the cilia of 

 their vibratile chord. Their position in the water is much more con- 



