NOTE. 



The publications of the Academy in octavo form, called 

 " Proceedings," were begun in 1846, by Dr. Asa Gray, then 

 Corresponding Secretary. The original plan was to print 

 with the proceedings of the meetings of the Society abstracts 

 of the papers presented, reserving the more formal finished 

 papers for the quarto publications, called " Memoirs." This 

 practice was continued until 1873, by Professors W. B. Rogers 

 and Joseph Lovering, who succeeded Dr. Gray in the same 

 office, and during these twenty-seven years eight volumes 

 were published. Meantime, on account of the difficulty of 

 procuring abstracts, that feature of the plan fell into disuse ; 

 while the greater convenience of the octavo form for most 

 scientific subjects, as well as its greater economy, led to the 

 printing of papers in extenso amidst the proceedings of the 

 meetings. For this reason, the undersigned, on assuming 

 the direction of the Academy's publications, in 1873, published 

 the scientific papers separately, under appropriate captions, 

 and made the proceedings of the meetings an appendix to the 

 papers ; and daring the nineteen years he has held the office 

 of Corresponding Secretary an octavo volume thus made up 

 has been published each year. 



The original idea of incorporating with the proceedings of 

 the meetings such brief abstracts of verbal communications as 

 may be furnished by the authors was an excellent one; and 

 although latterly the plan has been seldom followed, it has 

 been by no means abandoned. It should be borne in mind 

 by members that this method of partial publication is still 

 practicable, and may be very useful for preliminary notices 

 during an extended investigation. 



JOSIAH P. COOKE, 



Editor Vols. IX. to XX VII. inclusive. 



