44 



The President read a letter from the Secretary of the 

 Association of American Geologists and Naturalists, com- 

 municating a Report of a Committee of that body, laid 

 before it at its late session at New Haven, on the subject of 

 the nomenclature of Zoology, which Report was ordered 

 by a vote of the Association to be submitted to this Society 

 for consideration. It was voted to refer the papers to a com- 

 mittee composed of the following persons : A. A. Gould, 

 Jeffries Wyman, and S. L. Abbott. 



June 4, 1845. 

 C. T. Jackson, Vice President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Teschemacher remarked that he had just received, 

 from St. Diego, California, a living specimen of Melocactus 

 viridescens, of Nuttall's MSS., communicated to Messrs. 

 Torrey and Gray, and published by them, in their invaluable 

 work on the plants of North America, as an Echinocactus, 

 The difference of opinion, between these authors and Mr. 

 Nuttall, as to the generic character of this plant, arose, 

 probably, from the assertion of the latter that the flowers 

 proceeded from the upper clusters of spines ; whereas the 

 flowers of Melocactus proceed from the woolly head, char- 

 acteristic of this genus, in which they are usually imbedded. 

 But Nuttall also states that the fruit is smooth. This is a 

 character of Melocactus, the fruit of Echinocactus being 

 generally more or less scaly from the remains of the sepals. 

 PfeifTer says, " rarissime loevis." 



The specimen was stated to be about 5 inches high, and 

 9 inches in diameter ; the spines radiating, very crowded, 

 and transversely striate, four of tliem (Nuttall says three) in 

 each fascicle larger than the rest, but tlie upper and lower 

 spines the largest. The spines somewhat poisonous, and 



