52 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



lioneycomb. It had liitherto been supposed by entomologists that 

 the matter used for this purpose was a secretion of the insect 

 itself; but so far as he could judge by the senses, the matter used 

 was merely turpentine, and no doubt the turpentine he had ob- 

 served the insect storing up in the fall. 



Mr. Meehan exhibited some flowers of the common Bouvardia 

 leiantha of the green-houses, and of the hardy Deutzia gracilis, 

 and referred to his papers, published a few years ago in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Academy, on practical dicccism in the trailiug 

 Arbutus (Ejngdea repens) and MitcheUa repens, in which he 

 pointed out that these plants, though apparently hermaphrodite, 

 had the stamens and pistils of difterent characters in separate 

 l^lants, and were, therefore, subject to the laws of cross-fertiliza- 

 tion as indicated by Darwin. He had had his attention called to 

 the Bouvardia, by Mr. Tatnall, of Wilmington, Del., as furnishing 

 a similar instance to that of Epigsea and MitcheUa, to the same 

 natural order as which the Ginchoneous division of Ruhiacese the 

 Bouvardia belonged. These had some plants with the pistils 

 exserted, while in others only the stamens were visible at the 

 mouth of the corolla tube. Mr. Tatnall had not had the matter 

 suggested to him early enough to b^j that it was so in all cases ; 

 but he believed that these flowers, which practicall}'' might be 

 termed pistillate and staminate, were found entirely on separate 

 plants. This is a very important fact, as the Bouvardia is not 

 raised from seeds in green-houses, but from cuttings of the roots, 

 and, therefore, all these plants with separate sexes must have 

 been produced from one original individual, without the interven- 

 tion of seed, and thus confirm the position advanced in a previous 

 paper of the speaker on " Bird variations," namely, that variations 

 in form, and, by logical inference, new species, may arise without 

 seminal intervention ; and that in this way identical species may 

 appear in separated localities, without the necessity of supposing 

 an emigration from one small point, as Darwinism now does. 



In the specimens of Deutzia gracilis were two forms of flowers 

 on the same plant. Besides the large ones with stamens and pis- 

 tils apparently perfect as generally seen, there were numerous 

 small flowers in which the petals were only partially developed. 

 The filaments were entirely wanting, but the anthers Avere as per- 

 fect, if not larger than in what we should call the perfect flowers. 

 Any one could see that these small flowers were the result of de- 

 ficient nutriment, and would be apt to pass the matter over with 

 this simple reflection; but he wished to emphasize the fact that 

 this defective nutrition rendered the female organs inoperative, 

 while the male organs were still able to exercise their functions ; 

 thus affording another instance, if any more be needed, of the 

 truth of his theory of sex, namely, that with defective nutrition, 

 the female sex is the first to disappear ; and that on\y under the 

 highest conditions of vitality is the female sex formed. 



[May 9, 



