NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 179 



had since extended the observations so as to get proofs of the same principle 

 from single bud cases. He exhibited specimens of some maple shoots of the 

 present season's growth and showed that there was a gradual diminution of 

 strength in the leaves from the early spring to the present time ; hut just in 

 proportion as the leafiest in vigor the itxillury buds c/ained in strenr/th. The upper 

 buds were large and plump, the lower scarcely discernible. The inference 

 was made clear, from these illustrations, that whatever may be the cause of the 

 simultaneous appearance of leaves and axillary buds, they were not in har- 

 mony together. 



He further suggested how very important it was that botanists should note 

 well the most trivial phenomenon. These facts, which bid fair to revolutionize 

 one of the most popular dogmas in vegetable physiology, had all originated 

 from the single observation that the glands on the leaf stalks of the common 

 wild senna weed, Cassia marilandica, Avere not always in one fixed position, 

 and could not, therefore, be an elementary part of the regular leaf system. 

 They were afterwards found to be buds which had been devoured, as it were, 

 by the leaf, and actually absorbed into its structure. 



Mr. Kedfield uoticed the finding of Aspidium aculeatum in the 

 Catskill Mountains, two degrees farther south than it had heretofore 

 been observed. 



Sfptemhcr \-itli. 

 Dr. LeConte in the Chair. 

 Nine members present. 



Scptemher list. 

 Dr. Ruschenberger, Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 Sixteen members present. 



September 28#/i. 



Dr. Bridges in the Chair. 



Twenty members present. 



The following gentlemen were elected Members : 

 Jas. Cummisky, M. D. ; T. H. Struts ; Nathaniel E. Macomber ; 

 Wm. H. Fynn. 



Prof. Geo. H. Cook, of Princeton, N. J., was elected a Corres- 

 pondent. 



Oct bth. 

 Dr. Ruschenberger, Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 Eighteen members present. 



The following papers were presented for publication : 

 " Meteors, their composition and the cause of their ignition and of 

 their white trails." By Jacob Ennis. 



" On the variations of the Genus ^giothus." By Elliott Coues, 

 A.M. 

 1869.] 



