71 



sufficient to establish a connection of the more advanced 

 nations of America with the early civilizations of the old 

 world, either by migration or direct or indirect inter- 

 course, but that I simply wish to call your attention to 

 some of the resemblances between these old peoples, 

 which may be merely the necessary coincidences of simi- 

 lar periods of development of man in all places, at par- 

 ticular periods of the growth of nations. 



Mr. James Kijiball presented, in behalf of Mr. John 

 Conway of Marblehead, several old papers written during 

 the period of the Revolution. Adjourned. 



Eegular Meeting, Monday, March 19, 1877. 



Meeting this evening at 7.30 o'clock. The President 

 in the chair. Records read. 



Mrs. J. F. Machado, of Salem, was elected a resident 

 member. 



Mr. John Robinson gave a lecture on the fertilization 

 of flowers by the wind and by insects. 



He commenced his remarks by alluding to Sprengle, 

 Miiller, Darwin and Lubbock, and said he should confine 

 his lecture to what these and other botanists and investi- 

 gators had observed and written upon the subject. 



The lecture was divided as follows : — 



Definition of close, self, and cross-fertilization, and 

 hybridization ; close-fertilization considered ; how close- 

 fertilization is prevented in many plants ; fertilization by 

 wind ; fertilization by insects ; observations by diflferent 

 persons, particularly Mr. Darwin, on the effects of close 

 and cross-fertilization. 



Summary — That self-fertilization in many i^lants is 



