JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 151 



March 4, 1861. 

 The President, Dr. Engelmann, in the chair. 



Eleven members present. 



Letters were read from Dr. A. Holtzmann, of Heidelberg, 

 Germany, acknowledging receipt of notice of his election as 

 a Correspondent ; and from Dr. Behr, San Francisco, Cal., 

 communicating observations on the geographical distribution 

 of Lepidoptera. 



Dr. T. C. Hilgard exhibited numerous specimens illustra- 

 tive of his preliminary remarks on the nature of certain vege- 

 tations forming an originally white efflorescence on humid 

 ground in summer, different phases of whose development he 

 had been tracing, and which were formerly thought to be so 

 many Algre, under the names of Chlorococcum, Zepraria, 

 Kermesina, Protococcus, etc., with digressions on the pro- 

 duction of leprous and byssous brooding phases or so-called 

 degenerations observed in Crypto g amia ; of the probable se- 

 rial connection between the zonarious Algae and collematous 

 Lichens, and likewise in the proliferous cells of fermentation 

 and putrefaction, which Schwann, the founder of microscopi 

 cal anatomy, had previously argued to be always absolutely 

 dependent on the formation of these vegetable organisms. 

 Dr. Hilgard has also made investigations on the growth of 

 fungous plants such as mould and wood-rot, of which he 

 exhibited interesting examples confirmatory of Schwann's 

 views. 



Mr. Holmes made some remarks on the discovery of an an- 

 cient Semitic language in arrow-head inscriptions older than 

 the known Semitic languages, the Chaldean, etc., and holding 

 a similar relation to the latter which the Gothic language had 

 to the modern Germanic and Scandinavian. This language 

 is also syllabic. The discovery is mentioned in Bunsen's 

 Philosophy of Universal History as applied to languages and 

 religion. 



March 18, 1861. 



The President, Dr. Engelmann, in the chair. 



Nine members present. 



Donations were made to the library as follows : Texas Al- 

 manac for 1861, from Dr. B. F. Shumard ; Descrip. of New 

 Species of Crinoidea, from the Iowa Geological Survey, by 

 James Hall, Albany, 1861, from the Author. 



