NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 159 



June 9th. 

 The President, Dr. Hays, in the Chair. 



Thirty-seven members present. 



The following paper was presented for publication : 



" Descriptions of Unionidse from the Lower Cretaceous formation 

 of New Jersey." By Isaac Lea. 



The death of Mr. Matthew Newkirk, member of the Academy, 

 was announced. 



June IQth, 



The President, Dr. Hays, in the Chair. 



Twenty-one members present. 



The following paper was presented for publication : 

 "A sketch of the Natural Order Liliacese, as represented in the 

 flora of the States of Oregon and Calforuia, with special reference to 

 the plants collected in an excursion along our Pacific Coast, A. D., 

 1866, now in the herbarium of the writer." By Alphonso Wood. 



June 2Sd. 



The President, Dr. Hays, in the Chair. 



Thirty members present. 



The following papers were presented for publication : 

 " Notice of some vertebrate remains from Harden Co., Texas ;" 

 " Indication of an Elotherium in Texas ;" 

 " Notice of some reptile remains from Nevada ;" 

 " Notice of some vertebrate remains from the West India Islands." 

 By Joseph Leidy, M.D. 



Prof. Cope presented to the Academy some remains of extinct Cetacea from 

 the ^iocene bed of Maryland. Of these, some vertebrae, belonging to adult 

 and young individuals, were stated to belong to a species and genus which 

 had not been characterized. He stated that the form was allied to Priscodel- 

 phinus in its slender and pointed diapophyses of the lumbar and caudal verte- 

 brae, but differed in the concave centrum, with four processes clasping the 

 epiphysis. It was named Ixacanthus C(elospondtlus. 



The portion of the mandibular ramus of the smallest known tinner whale 

 was presented to the Academy and named Bal;enoptera pusilla. The length 

 of the species was stated to have been about eighteea feet, or equal the new born 

 young of the modern fin-backs. Some vertebrae in the collection were also 

 supposed to belong to the same. 



He mentioned that he had opportunity of examining a portion of a specimen 

 of the Scrag Whale of Dudley, Bahena g i b b o s a of Erxleben, and ascertained 

 that it represented a genus not previously known. It was a fin-back whale, 

 but without dorsal fin or throat folds, resembling superficially the genus 

 Balaena. The baleen short and curved. The genus was called Agaphelus. 



a second species of the genus was to be found in the " gray whale " of the 

 coasts of California. The baleen of this species, compared with that of the A. 

 gibbosus, was longer and had narrower basis. The plates moderately and 

 simply concave, while those of the latter are sigmoidal, most curved near the 



1868.] 



