32 



PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OF 



[1884. 



exactly alike as the twelve or eighteen specimens examined in this 

 way indicated. Mr. Meehan stated that he had, in his Flower a 

 ami Ferns of the United States, series ii. vol. ii, p. 95, noted the 

 existence of a similar thready attachment at the base of Epiphe- 

 gns Virginiana, evidently connecting the plant with a foster- 

 parent in early life — a fact since confirmed by Mr. Fergus, of 

 West Chester, Pa. ; and a fuller examination of these cases might 

 afibrd the clue to all. 



Variation in Halesia. — Mr. Meehan exhibited dry leaves and 

 fruit of Halesia diptera, H. tetrajjtera, and of a remarkable 

 departure raised from the last-named species some years ago. 

 This appeared in a bed of seedlings all raised from seed gathered 



from one tree growing in a garden 

 in Germantown. It attracted atten- 

 tion when one year old by the leaves 

 bearing a resemblance to those of an 

 apple-tree. The parent tree had 

 leaves narrowl}' lanceolate and acu. 

 minate, rather thin, 

 pale green on the upper 

 surface, and with no 

 particularly prominent 

 veins. The plant in 

 question had broadly 

 ovate leaves, scarcely 

 pointed, very dark 

 green and rugose on 

 the upper surface, and 

 strongly veined and 

 hirsute below. It was 

 planted to see what it 

 would come to. 



The flowers were open cup-shaped, 

 instead of being drawn into a narrow 

 tube at the base, as in the parent 

 plant and the pistil was wholly 

 enclosed and not exserted. For 

 several years the plant was sterile, 

 and many good botanists, whose attention was called to it, 

 regarded the plant as a hybrid, and the sterility as a proof 

 thereof. It seemed of no avail to point out that there was no 

 other species with which the parent could have obtained pollen 

 within many miles, nor to show that hybrids were not neces- 

 sarily^ sterile. This season the plant produced fruit for the first 

 time, some of which were now exhibited to the Academy. 

 They are very small, not much over a quarter of an inch in diam- 

 eter, and the four equal wings were comparatively large and of a 

 strongly coriaceous character. The fruit which had been cut 



1(7. H. tetraptera. 



1. H. tetraptera. 



