298 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1884. 



strawberry — is similarly influenced. There are some varieties 

 wholly pistillate, and it is claimed that when pollen is applied from 

 other varieties, the resultant fruit is that of the male parent. It 

 is of great practical importance that such a question should be 

 decided by undoubted facts. Experience in other directions does 

 not confirm these views. 



The Mitchella repens is reall}'^ a diojcious plant. Many years 

 ago he found one plant with white berries, and removed some 

 portion to his own grounds, where, isolated from others, it pro- 

 duces no fruit. In its native location it bears white berries freely, 

 though the pollen is from the original scarlet-berried forms. 

 Mr. Jackson Dawson had given him a similar case on Professor 

 Sargent's grounds, where a white-berried Prinos verticillatus is 

 produced, though it must have pollen from the original red- 

 berried form. Other illustrations were referred to. To those 

 who looked for regularity of rule in these cases, and in the light 

 of the specimen of corn before the meeting, there might be a 

 doubt whether the variation in corn, often attributed to cross- 

 fertilization, msLj not, in some cases, result from an innate 

 power to vary. It did not really follow that the rule should be 

 uniform, for those who had experience in hybridizing knew how 

 variable were the results, even from the seed of a single flower. 

 Parkman had obtained, in lilies, seedlings so exactly like the female 

 parent, that only for the remarkable form from the same seed- 

 vessel, known as Lilium Parkmani^ it might have been doubted if 

 some mistake as to the use of foreign pollen had not been made. 

 If so little influence could occasionally be found at a remote end 

 of the line, we may reasonably look for an immediate influence at 

 the nearer end in some exceptional cases. But there appeared to 

 be no carefully conducted experiments on corn recorded any- 

 where, though the belief in the immediate influence of strange 

 pollen is a reasonable one so far as general observation goes. It 

 seemed, however, to him, with the specimen of innate variation 

 in corn before us, more careful experiments with corn and other 

 things are desirable. 



December 23. 



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



Thirty-two persons present. 



The following papers were presented for publication : — 



" On a Remarkable Exposure of Columnar Trap near Orange, 



N. J.," by Prof. Angelo Heilprin. 



" Note on Some New Foraminifera from the Nummulitic 



Formation," by Prof. Angelo Heilprin, 



