118 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1884. 



Symplocos fcetidus, he would be surprised at the great amount 

 of variation it presented, even in a small area, when the variations 

 were looked for by comparison. He had himself seen a plant 

 bearing spathes four inches long, with its next neighbor having 

 one a little over an inch — no larger than a walnut. Some would 

 be globular, some ovate, some linear, some terminating in an 

 abrupt point, others lengthened into a long straight or curved 

 beak. The variations in color were too well known to need more 

 than this bare reference. It was not uncommon to hear variation 

 attributed to environment, by which we are to understand external, 

 and in a measure accidental circumstances. Environment might 

 be led to include some external influence operating on the primary 

 cell, giving birth to the subsequent individual exemplifying the 

 variation. 



But in this sense, change by environment would be the 

 merest guess, as no evidence had been offered in support of any 

 special influence then not exerted. At other times no great varia- 

 tion followed, and possibly no one would want to embrace this 

 point in a definition of environment. 



Sugar in Cladastris tincio->ia. — In Mr. Meehan's garden at 

 Germantown, there were few ti-ees but which exuded sap from 

 wounds made in winter or earlj^ spring, but among them all, few 

 bled, as it was termed by horticulturists, more profusely than 

 Cladastris tincloria ( Virgilia lutea Mx.). The icicles formed from 

 this exuding sap afforded a good opportunity to test the saccha- 

 rine character of the liquid. During congelation by frost all 

 foreign substances are rejected, and in the formation of the 

 icicle the sugar is pushecl forward to the extreme point. The 

 end of an icicle of a sugar maple is its only sweet part, and this 

 was very sweet from the accumulation of the saccharine matter. 

 The end of the icicle from the Cladastris was also sweet, though 

 less so than in any other sugar-bearing trees he had observed. 



April 22. 

 The President, Dr. Jos. Leidy, in the chair. 

 Twenty-eight persons present. 



Vertebrate Fossils from Florida. — Prof. Leidy directed atten- 

 tion to some fossils, part of a. collection recently referred to him 

 for examination by the Smithsonian Institution. They consist 

 of remains mostly of large terrestrial mammals, especially related 

 with forms which now live in the intertropical portions of the 

 old world. Obtained in Florida, they are of additional interest 

 as evidences of the existence in this region of a formation of 

 tertiary age not previously known. An accompanying letter from 

 Dr. J. C. Neal, of Archer, Florida, informs. us that the fossils. 



