1883.] natural sciences of philadelphia. ill 



May 15. 



Tiie President, Dr. Leidy, in the chair. 



Twenty-five persons present. 



The following were presented for publication : — 

 " Pinus Koraiensis," by Josiah Hoopes. 



" On the Fishes of the Lakes of the Western Part of the Great 

 Basin," by Edw. D. Cope. 



Observations on Forsythia. — Mr. Thomas Meehan, at the meeting 

 of the Botanical Section, May 14, referred to his communication 

 to the Academy (December 29, 1868), in which he suggested that 

 notwithstanding the strong specific differences between Forsythia 

 viridissima and F. susjyensa, he believed the}^ must have had a 

 common origin. F. suspensa has short styles and long stamens, 

 broad lobes to the corolla, broadly-ovate, thin, glaucous, sometimes 

 trifoliate, deeply serrate leaves, and makes a shrub of some ten feet 

 high, with numerous slender, pendulous branches. F. viridissima 

 is a stiff", erect bush, but of not half the height, with narrowly 

 lanceolate, thick, bright green, lightly serrate leaves ; flowers with 

 narrow lobes, and the style long and the stamens short. F. suspensa, 

 in cultivation, often produces abortive capsules ; F. viridissima 

 rarely, if ever. In the paper cited above, an account is given of the 

 production of seed-vessels on F. viridissima, hy using the pollen of 

 F. suspensa. Though the seeds were not wholly perfect, a winged 

 seed of one species was produced among the wingless ones of the 

 other. The resultant impression from those observations was that 

 in spite of what would be regarded as good specific differences, 

 they are but dimorphic forms, referable to sexual peculiarities. 



Three years ago, the usually seedless capsules of F. suspensa 

 produced a number of good seeds, which were sown. This season 

 thirty-four flowered. The leaves and general habit of these 

 plants present every shade of gradation between F. suspensa and 

 F. viridissima; some of the leaves of the latter being even much 

 more slender than those of the original species. The flowers also 

 present in the larger number of cases the slender lobes of the 

 F. viridissima; some with the lobes recurved laterally to such 

 an extent as to seem much narrower than they are. 



The most interesting fact in connection with this is the sexual 

 characteristics. Of the thirty-four plants, raised from a parent 

 having a short style and long stamens, only four have retained 

 this parental character, but have assumed that belonging to the 

 form viridissima. 



Some interesting questions are suggested by these observations r 



