78 



ma trijjhyllum. He presented the accompanying table — 

 containing the date of the first finding in flower, the 

 several species enumerated therein — compiled by one of 

 our enthusiastic collectors, the results of his observations 

 for the past fifteen years. 



Mr. George D. Phippen spoke of some of the locali- 

 ties which he was wont to frequent, in years long past, in 

 search of our native plants, and which are now occupied 

 by dwellings or manufacturing industries. He alluded 

 briefly to the great change that had taken place in the 

 immediate suburbs of the city. 



Eev. E. C. BoLLES remarked, that a day or tAvo before, 

 he had listened to a lecture by Prof. Asa Gra}^ on* the 

 Fertilization of Plants by the Agency of Insects, and 

 that several of the wild-flowers on the table had served as 

 illustrations. Among these was the Houstonia, of which 

 there had long been known to be two kinds of flowers. 

 The first had stamens })r()jecting above the dwarfed pistil, 

 while in the second the stigmas were carried up far l)e3ond 

 the anthers. The members of the Institute would see 

 both kinds pretty equally represented in the tufts of 

 flowers before them, distinguishing these by observing 

 that in some flowers they would see only the two stigmas, 

 in others only the four anthers projecting from the throat 

 of the corolla. So the Houstonia had been said to have 

 dimorpJious tlowers, but the reason for this variation had 

 not been understood till an explanation had been sought 

 in the possibility of an artificial fertilization. It was now 

 seen that the pollen of any Houstonia blossom did not 

 fertilize the ovides of the same flower. In the case of 

 the flowers with extruded stigmas, this could not occur 

 unaided, ''because the stamens were deeply sunk in the 



