1883.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 49 



the unity of the glacier, as indicated by observed facts, neither 

 assumed an unreasonable land elevation in polar regions, nor 

 required a thickness of ice so great as to be open to the objections 

 of the last speaker. 



He suggested that the ice-cap flowed south simpl}' because it 

 flowed toward a source of heat. Such flow does not depend upon 

 gravity, but would occur in a nearly flat field of ice, and lie thought 

 that the ice need not to liave been more than a few times its 

 present thickness in Greenland to account for all existing phe- 

 nomena upon the hypothesis now suggested. 



Professor Heii.prin maintained that we M'ere unacquainted with 

 any laws of glacial action which would account for the indis- 

 criminate progression of an ice-sheet toward a source of heat. 

 The molecular-expansion theory as applied to the glacial phe- 

 nomena of the Alps, took no cognizance of the position of the heat 

 power, l)ut merely of that of least resistance (the direction of 

 slope). As to tlie magnitude of icebergs, the height above water 

 gave no positive indication as to the development (in depth) 

 beneath the surface, since this would largely depend upon the 

 form assumed by the berg. As a matter of fact, however, the 

 highest bergs observed by Hayes and Nares in the northern 

 regions, rose only about 300 ft. out of the water, a height some- 

 what exceeding the highest Antarctic bergs encountered b}- the 

 " Challenger." We had, therefore, no indications of any extra- 

 ordinary development of ice in Greenland. 



Chalcedony coniaiinng Li(^iiid. — Professor H. Carvill Lewis 

 called attention to a geode of chalcedony from the Salto River, 

 Uraguay, presented by Mr. S. R Colbroun, of the United States 

 Navy. The specimen contained an unusual quantity of liquid — 

 from two to three drachms ; it was derived from an extensive 

 basaltic formation of amygdaloid and black melaphyr, and was 

 coated with a substance resembling asbestos. He described the 

 method of formation of such hollow masses of mammillary chalce- 

 dony as- being endogenous and referred to an interesting paper 

 recently published by I. Anson and Parkhurst upon the artificial 

 manufactuie of chalcedony. 



Ojt fJie FlowrrirKi of Uie Sfapelia. — At the meeting of the 

 Botanical Section, February 12th, Mr. Thomas Meehan exhibited 

 specimens of Staijclia hufonia in various stages of growth, inflor- 

 escence and fruit, and pointed out that though there were axillary 

 buds of more oi' less prominence at the base of what we had to 

 call leaves, yet the flower.s rarely proceeded from these, but from 

 lateral accessory buds. When the axillary buds developed, they 

 produced branches and not flowers. The lateral accessory buds 

 usually developed into minute abortive flowers, with a membranous 

 scale or bract in the place of the primary leaf. These observations 

 were made on plants which had been planted in the open gi-ound 



