Morse.] 404 [March 4, 



The AIuos are mentioned in Japanese history more than 2500 

 years ago. Mr. Bickmore thinks that starting from Central Asia, 

 they followed the northern bordei-s of the Mongolian desert to the 

 head waters of the Amoor, and either continued down that river to 

 Saghalien or through the peninsula of Corea to the Japanese islands. 

 They once occujiied the whole of the large island of Nippon, but, 

 after many centuries of continued warfare with the Japanese, were 

 driven northward over Tsugar straits to the island of Yesso. They 

 now occupy Yesso, the southern part of Saghalien and all the Ku- 

 rile islands. They are undoubtedly passing aAvay, and if the nations 

 of the Western World had reached this remote region a few centu- 

 ries later, the Ainos would have been known to us only by a few 

 passages in the historical writings of their cruel oppressors, the Jap- 

 anese. 



Dr. C. Pickering remarked that ^lie conclusions of Mr. 

 Bickmore in regard to the affinities of the Ainos Avere fully 

 sustained by the photographs exhibited. 



Mr. E. S. Morse called attention to the mode of growth 

 of a new entomostracous Crustacean "svhich he had found 

 in this vicinity. The concentric lines of increase upon its 

 carapace greatly resemble those of a bivalve shell. These 

 markings, so unusual in a crustacean, led him to make a mi- 

 croscopical examination of the shell ; he found that the Unes 

 were the margins of the exuviations, whichj instead of being 

 discarded — as almost universally occurs among crustaceans — 

 were cemented together and retained upon the animal. Al- 

 though this mode of growth resembles that of the bivalve 

 MoUusks, it does not actually depart from the crustacean 

 tji^e of moulting. The species, which he called Limnadia 

 americcma^ is the first ever discovered on this continent ; a 

 few others occur in Mauritius, St. Domingo, France, and 

 Russia. 



The Custodian announced a valuable donation of an ex- 

 tensive series- of humming birds and nests, and of West 

 Indian shells, from Mrs. Henry Bryant, for which the thanks 

 of the Society were voted. 



The Vice-President announced that a second course of 

 weekly lectures — eight in number — on Structural Botany, 



