74 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Feb. 



bulbs was shown in detail, and was illustrated by careful drawings 

 on the black-board. The peculiarities of their germination were 

 also elaborately explained. The author of the paper stated, that, 

 after careful microscopic investigation into the fructification of ferns, 

 he was inclined to think that the views usually promulgated with 

 regard to the impregnation of these plants were untenable. Con- 

 siderable discussion followed after the reading of this paper, in 

 which the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop, Mr. Barnston, and Dr. 

 Dawson took part. Dr. Dawson stated that this little fern, like 

 many flowering plants, appeared to have two distinct means of 

 propagation. The spores of course were the strict analogues of 

 seeds, while the bulbs appeared to be undeveloped buds, in which 

 phenomena took place similar to the ordinary budding-process. 



A paper by Mr. R. J. Fowler " On Shells taken from the 

 Stomachs of Flounders," was next read by the Recording Secretary. 

 It is, and has long been, well known that many fishes — such as the 

 cod, and many of the flat fishes — often feed upon marine shells ; and 

 many rare deep-water molluscs have only been procured from the 

 stomachs of fishes. In the winters of 1861-62 and 1862-63, very 

 large flounders (said to have been taken at Portland, Maine, U. S.) 

 were sent to the Montreal markets, frozen and uncleaned. The 

 stomachs of nearly all these contained marine shells, often of con- 

 siderable size. During two winters, about thirty or forty 

 species were procured from this source, some of considerable rarity, 

 and these sometimes in great numbers. About 100 magnificent 

 specimens of the rare Yoldia thraciceformis (a large sub-arctic bi- 

 valve shell) were taken, and two specimens of another bivalve (a 

 species of Necera) which has never before been taken on the North 

 American coast. This last shell is probably identical with a rare 

 British species, occasionally taken at Loch Fyne and a few other 

 Scottish localities. 



Dr. Dawson then exhibited and made some remarks upon a 

 collection of fifty-seven species of plants made in Newfoundland 

 in the autumn of 186-1, at the instance of Mr. A. Murray, of the 

 Geological Survey of that Island. Amongst the most interesting 

 plants collected we notice Calluna vulgaris (see this journal, 

 1864, page 459), Lychnis alpina, Hedysarum boreale (which 

 occurs also on the mountains of Vermont and on the Alle- 

 ghanies), Epilobium latifolium, Comus suecica (found also in 

 Norway), Aster grarninifolius (a White Mountain species), Gen- 

 tiana acuta, and Pleurogyne rotata. A remarkable variety of 



