82 Proceedings of Societies. [zoe 



spoken of. These have played an important part in the evolution 

 of these forms as the development of edible fruits and brilliant flow- 

 ers has undoubtedly been brought about mainly through their agency. 

 As soon as the distribution of seeds and the pollination of flowers 

 became dependent upon these, sharp competition was set up to at- 

 tract these visitors, and the result we see in the amazing variety of 

 forms now upon the earth. 



March 5, i8g2. Annual Meeting. The Vice-President, Mrs. M. 

 W. Kincaid, in the chair. 



The annual reports of the Secretary and Treasurer were read 

 and ordered filed. 



The following oflicers were elected for the ensuing year: 



President — Douglas H. Campbell. 



Vice-President — Mrs. S. W. Dennis. 



Secretary — Frank H. Vaslit. 



Treasurer — Miss A. M. Manning. 



Librarian — Mrs. S. W. Burtchaell. 



Curator— Miss Edith B. Falkenau. 



Councilors — Mrs. L. D. Emerson, Miss C. H. Hittell, C. C. Riedy. 



March 2/}., i8g2. J. M. Hutchings in the chair. 



The following were elected to membership: Volney Rattan, Miss 

 Kate Hodgkinson, Dr. C. B. Brigham, James Denman, Miss Bertha 

 E. Stringer, Miss Lotta Bean, Miss K. E. Cole, Mrs. L. H. Sharp, 

 Miss Jessie Smith, Mrs. M. F. McRoberts, Theodor Michaelis, Dr. 

 Joseph Pescia, Prof W. M. Searb3\ 



Mrs. Katharine Bandegee read a paper on the Fertilization ot 

 Flowering Plants. 



The speaker gave a brief outline ot the reproductive processes, 

 as far as understood, of Phanerogamic and Cryptogamic plants, 

 and showed that the latter approached much nearer the animal 

 kingdom by their motile spermatozoids and necessity of fluid me- 

 dia. The fertilization of flowering plants is brought about by means 

 of the winds, by the visits of insects and by the mechanism of the 

 flowers themselves. The first two agencies, especially the second, 

 had, the speaker thought, been unduly credited at the expense of 

 the third. Dioecious and monoecious flowers were necessarily de- 

 pendent upon the first two agencies, but in the great mass of an- 

 nual plants, nearly all having hermaphrodite flowers', and so many of 



