11 [Atwood. 



Lycopodium apoda- 



Blechnum gracile. 



Gymnogramma chrysophylla — the golden fern, which does not grow 



as well in close cases as 

 Gymnogramma Peruviana — the silver fern. 



Complete lists would, I think, nearly exhaust the flora, or at least 

 the plants less than three feet high ; as it is, I have mentioned only 

 those interesting and beautiful ones which I have grown myself, or seen 

 in other cases, and offer them to those who desire to combine beauty 

 with scientific use. 



Capt. N. E. Atwood addressed the meeting upon the habits 

 and geographical distribution of the common Lobster, in the 

 following words : — 



The Lobster is found along our coast in great abundance from the 

 southern point of Cape Cod to the gulf of St. Lawrence. They are 

 caught by the fishermen in vast numbers along the coasts of Maine 

 and Massachusetts, and find a ready sale in Boston and New York 

 markets ; from Plymouth northward and eastward they are caught in 

 deep water in the months of February and March, but not in large 

 quantities ; as the season advances they come near the shore and re- 

 main through the spring, summer and autumn, and are very plentiful ; 

 along this range of coast three-quarters at least are males at all sea- 

 sons of the year. At Cape Cod (Provincetown) their habits differ 

 very much from the lobsters on the north shore ; they do not come 

 there until June and remain until October, when they disappear and 

 go to parts unknown. One very singular fact I have noticed is, that 

 the lobsters which visit Cape Cod are nearly all females ; they appear 

 to come near the shore for the purpose of depositing their young, afler 

 which they pass away and others in turn take their places, as is indi- 

 cated by the change that is constantly taking place, for when the fish- 

 ermen are catching great quantities of large, good hard-shell lobsters 

 and they are unusually abundant, perhaps the next day there will be 

 a new kind, smaller and not of so good quahty, the former ones hav- 

 ing passed away and others come to take their places. 



In Boston the number of lobsters sold annually cannot be much 

 short of a million. The male lobster is preferred and Is the most 

 salable, as this city has always been supplied from the northern shore 

 of Massachusetts and coast of Maine, where the males are most plcn- 

 tlfiil. It Is a great advantage to the fishermen that the people prefer 

 males ; In New York It Is very different in this particular, that city 

 being supplied from Cape Cod after June, and the female lobster thus 

 considered much the best. I have sold many lobsters In New York, 



