10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



rentl}'' at about the same horizon as the Elotlierium Leidyanum, 

 and Rhinoceros matutinus Marsh, from Monmouth Count}^, in the 

 same State. 



January 10. 

 Mr. Wm. S. Yaux, Yice-President, in the chair. 

 Thirteen members present. 



January It. 

 Dr. Carson, Vice-President, in the chair. 

 Twenty-five members present. 



January 24. 

 Mr. Yaux, Yice-President, in the chair. 

 Eighteen members present. 



Mr. Thomas Meehan presented a fruit of a pear, which pre- 

 sented the external appearance of an apple, gathered from a 

 Tj'son pear tree growing in the garden of Dr. Lawrence, of Paris, 

 Canada. Dr. Lawrence had a Rhode Island greening apple near 

 the pear tree, and some of the latter interlaced with it. The pear 

 tree was full of blossoms last spring, but only those interlacing 

 bore fruit. They had all the appearance of apples, so much so, 

 that many who had seen them had supposed there must have 

 been some mistake as to Dr. Lawrence gathering them. Dr. L. 

 liad, however, when he first saw them, obtained Mrs. Lawrence's 

 aid in separating the branches, so that there should be no mistake. 

 The specimens had been sent to Mr. Meehan, who regarded them 

 as apples ; but on cutting them open, found the seeds to be of the 

 pear. The granular matter characteristic of the pulp of the pear 

 also existed in the carpels, but none in the pulp, which was wholly 

 fibrous, as in the apple; the insertion of the stalk, also, was that 

 of the pear. Instead of the cavity being funnel-form, as in the 

 apple, it was carapanulate, as if the stem had been pushed in, 

 carr^'ing the epidermis and pulp with it. He had no doubt that 

 the fruit had the pedicle, carpellar}^ walls, and seeds of the pear, 

 with the granular pear-pulp wanting ; but with the fibrous pulp 

 and eiDiderm of the apple. 



As to the law of its production, he disliked speculation, but it 

 would seem that there were two ways in which it might be pro- 

 duced — either by a natural evolution of form, independent of 

 sexual influence, which plants at times exhibited, or by cross- 



[May 2, 



