Wyman.] 84 [November 21, 



nothing that was characteristic of the Indians. It appeared much 

 like a rude portraiture of Washington. 



Dr. Jeffries Wyman oifered some consiclerations on the 

 morphology of the leaves of the pitchei* plant, and especially 

 of ovir common Sarracenia. 



He said that the former supposition that the pitcher was formed of 

 the meeting together and union of the opposite edges of the leaf had 

 been shown to be erroneous by the investigations of Dr. Hooker, who 

 in studying the new leaves of seedlings, discovered that they fii'st ap- 

 peared in the shape of a cylinder, which was the rudiment of the 

 blade of a leaf, and that soon a little depression appeared near the 

 termination, which was homologous with the terminal gland at the 

 end of some leaves. This depression increased till the pitcher was 

 formed, so that instead of being a leaf, the pitcher was a hollowed 

 midrib, or the prolongation of one which had become hollowed by a 

 process of absorption or growth, or both. 



Dr. Wyman had found that in our common Sarracenia, the new 

 leaf first appears as a cylinder, showing no signs of pitcher or of open- 

 ing ; subsequently a little indentation was noticed on the front, and 

 then above it, as seen in front, a little groove, which finally deepens 

 till it splits, when the two sides open outwards, and form the lateral 

 flaps or hood. ^ 



An interesting discussion followed these remarks relative to the 

 power of absorption by plants. 



Dr. B. G. Wilder inquired whether there was any absorption at the 

 base of the leaf stalk in autumn, previous to the dropping of the 

 leaves. Dr. Wyman said that he had found from microscopic sections 

 of the base of the leaf stalk, at about this time, that while previously 

 the cells were interlocked, as it were, they afterwards came into al- 

 lignment upon either side of the plane where the stalk is subsequently 

 broken, so that the leaf drops readily. 



Mr. George B. Emerson spoke of the changes which occurred in the 

 lower leaves of the cabbage plant, which he believed Avere not due to 

 mere desiccation, but to an absorption by the plant for use in other 

 parts in the completion of the head ; the plant husbands its own re- 

 sources. The same he believed to be true of the upper leaves of In- 

 dian corn. 



On behalf of the Committee of Nomination appointed at 

 the last meeting, Mr. R. C. Greenleaf brought in the name of 

 Mr. Thomas T. Bouve for the Vice Presidency, in place of 



