404 proceedings of the academy of [1885. 



December 1. 

 The President, Dr. Leidy, in the chair. 

 Thirty-eight persons present. 



On a xohite-seeded variety of the Honey Locust. — Mr. Thomas 

 Meehan exhibited seeds of a tree of the Honey Locust, Gledit- 

 schia triacanthos, growing near Germantown, which were white 

 instead of dark olive-brown as in the normal condition. The tree 

 was of considerable age, and had evidently been hearing fruit for 

 many years. He had had, he said, many opportunities of exam- 

 ining Honey Locust seeds, but had never seen or heard of a white 

 seeded one before. The seeds instead of being narrowly ovate 

 twice the length of the breadth as usual, were nearly orbicular, 

 illustrating a point not new but worth emphasizing, that when a 

 plant varied from its parent in any one respect, it was liable to 

 have variations in others. A whole system of variations followed 

 a single departure. But the best use of this departure was to 

 illustrate a point not } 7 et perceived in its full force, as he 

 believed, that variation is not nearly as much dependent on 

 environment as many eminent men believe. "When variations 

 occur it is difficult for some to believe that cross-fertilization, a 

 return to some characteristic of an ancient parent, or some 

 accident of climate or soil had not an agency in the change. In 

 cases such as this, where there was no other shade of color to 

 cross with, no known progenitor with any variation in the color of 

 the seeds, no accident of climate or soil to influence this one tree 

 more than others growing near, it was difficult to understand 

 how anything as yet suggested could be a factor in the change. 

 We have to use yet the indefinite and meaningless expression 

 that the change was caused b} r the plant's own innate power to 

 change, an expression, which, obscure as it might be, is yet of 

 service by excluding much frojn the examination that might add 

 to the complexity of the investigation. 



Another interesting suggestion from these seeds was the 

 hereditary power which a new variation possessed. There had 

 been no time to ascertain whether these seeds would again repro- 

 duce trees with white seeds; but by analogy drawn from similar 

 departures in other plants, (here is no doubt the reproduction 

 of the variety would lie as continuous as in the best recognized 

 species. 



It could hardly be supposed thai since the first appearance of 

 the Honey Locusl on the earth, this was the first time the tree 

 had evei- produced white seeds, though he had never seen one or 

 knew of any recorded instance. In view of the hereditary char- 

 acter of these variations, it might be asked why has not some 



