189 



Dr. Cabot presented a male and female Smelt, Osmeriis 

 viridescens, from Lake Champlain. The specimens were 

 interesting from having been obtained in fresh water. 



Mr. H. R. Storer presented a specimen of the European 

 Mackerel, Scomber scomber, taken by himself off the coast 

 of Norway ; also a new specimen of Phyllobranchus. 



Mr. J. E. Cabot read, at the request of Mr. Desor, a 

 translation of a portion of a letter received by the latter 

 gentleman from M. Verneuil. It treated of various geolo- 

 gical subjects ; among others, of the fossil reptiles of Lebach 

 and Canada, and gave an account of the geological labors 

 of the writer during the spring of 1851. 



February 18, 1852. 

 The President in the Chair. 



Mr. H. R. Storer read a paper on the botanical charac- 

 ters and the medical properties of Sarracenia variolaris. 



Prof. Henry D. Rogers made a communication in the 

 joint name of Mr. E. Desor and himself, respecting the 

 equivalency in geological age, of the coal formation of the 

 United States, and the Anthraciferous strata of France, in 

 the departments of Mayenne and Sarthe. 



These last named deposits have been referred by the eminent 

 French geologists, MM. de Verneuil and d'Archiac, as men- 

 tioned by M. Elie de Beaumont, in his very able essay on the 

 Ancient Mountain Systems of Europe, to the date of the Carbo- 

 niferous Limestone. 



M. Elie de Beaumont, guided by his ingenious views of the 

 identity in epoch of elevation of mountain chains coinciding with 

 the same great circle of the globe, conceives that the coal strata 

 of the Appalachian chain of the United States were uplifted and 

 undulated into the flexures they now exhibit by the same great 



