130 JOURNAL OF THE [October, 



On motion it was resolved : That this Society has received 

 with sorrow the intelligence of the death of one of its members, 

 Mr. Charles W. Brown, of this city, whose demise occurred on 

 May 19th last, and hereby records this expression of its loss sus- 

 tained under this unexpected removal of an interested, sympa- 

 thetic, and faithful attendant at its sessions. 



The Corresponding Secretary announced a communication 

 from Mr. K. M. Cunningham, of Mobile, Alabama, dated May 

 27th, 1891, and accompanying a donation to the Society of a 

 hand-moulded brick of diatom-bearing clay weighing five pounds, 

 which Mr. Cunningham had secured at Apalachicola, Florida, 

 while on a Government survey of the bay, at a point on the bay 

 shore about two miles south from the steamboat wharf at Apa- 

 lachicola. Mr, Cunningham stated that "the material, on proper 

 treatment, will yield a very interesting showing of ' Gulf Marine 

 Diatoms.' " This '' brick " was exceedingly hard, and only after 

 severe labor with a cold-chisel and a heavy hammer were fragments 

 secured, which were distributed amongthemembersof the Society. 



The Corresponding Secretary also read a second communica- 

 tion from Mr. Cunningham, dated May 29th, 1891, describing 

 additional donations from him, as follows : 



" I. A packet of Foraminifera from rotten limestone, Selma, 

 Alabama. This rock underlies a wide area in the Black Belt, and 

 outcrops at Selma as a bluff fifty feet high and of indefinite 

 length on the river side. If a specimen of this substance be 

 abraded with a tooth-brush, millions of the crystalline microscopic 

 shells are secured. 



" 2. A piece of the rotten limestone having two sides prepared 

 and polished so as to show the transparent nature of the micro- 

 scopic shells. 



" 3. A packet of diatoms from a great spring near Birming- 

 ham, Alabama. The diatoms are related to Epithe/nia and Euno- 

 iia, and are so coarse that they move as freely in the packet as 

 dry sand. They occur m situ or parasitic upon a sphagnum moss 

 which grows on the rocky sides of the spring, from the surface 

 down to fifty feet in depth, and are found in long ribbon-like 

 masses, which, under acid treatment, break up into singles, 

 doubles, etc. When the moss is dry a little shaking causes them 

 to fall off, when they can be secured, if desired, by the pint. 



