PROCEEDINGS. XXX I 



by the president, Dr. J. C. Welling, at the annual meeting of 

 that Society. The invitation was accepted. 



Dr. W. K. Brooks, of Johns Hopkins University, made a com- 

 munication upon The Origin of Alternation of Generation 

 in the Hydro-Medusae.* 



Mr. Sanderson Smith, of New York, read a paper entitled 

 The Recent Explorations of the Steamer Albatross, 

 with Special Reference to their Geological Teachings. 



Sixty-Ninth Meeting, December 13, 1884. 



The President occupied the chair, and thirty-six members were 

 present. 



The following; communications were made , 



Mr. Leonhard Stejneger, The Shedding of the Bill in 



AuKS-t 



Dr. George Vasey, The Grasses of the Arid Plains, an 

 account of observations during a recent trip to the western part of 

 the United States. 



Mr. C. D. Walcott, The Oldest Known Fauna on the 

 American Continent, \ a description of the characteristic fos- 

 sils of the Primordial Group, of St. John, New Brunswick. 



Prof. L. F. Ward, The Occurrence of the Seventeen- 

 Year Locust in Virginia, in October, 1884, § and Additions 

 to the Flora of Washington during 1884. || In his second 



* Abstract of a memoir entitled The Life History of the Hydro-Medusa; ; 

 a Discussion of the Origin of the Meduscz, and of the Significance of 

 Metagenesis, now in course of publication by the Boston Society of Nat- 

 ural History. 



t 1SS5. <Results of Ornithological Explorations in the Commander 

 Islands and Kamtschatka, by Leonhard Stejneger. Bulletin of the U. S. 

 National Museum, No. 29, Washington, 1S85, pages 25-62, pis. i-v. 



% 1SS4. Walcott, Charles D. On the Cambrian Faunas of North Amer- 

 ica. Preliminary Studies. Review of the Fauna of the Saint John Forma- 

 tion contained in the Hartt Collection at Cornell University. Bull. U. S. 

 Geological Survey, No. 10 ; Washington, Svo., pp. 56, pis. i-x. 



§ 1SS5. Ward, Lester F. Premature Appearance of the Periodical 

 Cicada. <Science, v, June 12, p. 476. 



|| 1886. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, viii, p. 106. . 



