1891. | DODGE—ON JEFFERSONIA DIPHYLLA. 175 
MAYs EE, POQr- 
STATED MEETING. 
The President, Pror. H. L. FarrRCHILD, in the chair. 
Thirty persons present. 
The Council report recommended the payment of certain bills, 
which were voted. 
The third paper on the printed programme was given precedence, 
and was read by Mr. CHartes W. DonceE, entitled : 
ON JEFFERSONIA DIPHYLLA, AND ITS OCCURRENCE 
NEAR ROCHESTER. 
( Abstract.) 
This plant is usually regarded as one of rather local habits and 
botanists regard it as quite a “find” when they discover one. So far 
as I am able to learn it is quite rare in the immediate vicinity of 
Rochester, hence, the discovery of a small colony of plants in a 
patch of woods near Pittsford by Shelly G. Crump, Esq., is of consid- 
erable interest. The colony originally consisted of about fifty plants, 
all growing within a radius of about one hundred feet, a fact which 
would point to their all being descendants of a single plant. Mr. 
Crump is thoroughly familiar with all of the woods around Pittsford, 
but has never found /effersonia until this spring, although the par- 
ticular piece of woods in which it was found has been his favorite 
collecting ground for several years. 
Aside from its rarity /effersonia is interesting for several features: 
its sepals fall off as the petals expand, a rather uncommon occurrence 
among flowers ; its anthers open by valves, which open upwards like 
trap-doors, swinging out sidewise from the top of the anther; the seed- 
pod is a pyxis, the top being hinged to the bottom and opening upward, 
the hinge extending about one-fourth of the way around the pod; the 
leaf is parted into two leaflets, which fact has given the plant the com- 
mon name of Twin-leaf, and likewise its specific name, aphyé/a; further, 
the name, /effersonta, which was given it in honor of Thomas Jefferson, 
whose scientific achievements are almost entirely unknown to the 
present generation, furnishes the almost solitary instance in which any 
of our statesmen have been commemorated by having their name given 
to a newly discovered plant or animal. 
Mr. Dodge exhibited a growing specimen and also herbarium 
specimens, 
