98 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



Mr. Strong thought that we need not apprehend a very general 

 increase in scales under conditions of clean culture, such as pre- 

 vail rather generally in Massachusetts. 



Mr. Howard said that this remark of Mr. Strong's was undoubt- 

 edly true as regards tlie old and well-knoAvn scales, such as the 

 oyster-shell bark-louse and the scurfy bark-louse, but with certain 

 of the ncAver species, such as the San Jose scale and the West 

 Indian peach scale, clean culture will by no means suffice. 



Mr. Manning said that the Gossyparla idml or elm scale has 

 become very common in portions of Massachusetts, and that he 

 had seen it at Madison. N.J. He had worked assiduously to de- 

 stroy it, but found it a difficult insect to fight. He had destroyed 

 many young and thinks that his trees are now free from them. 



MEETING FOE LECTURE AND DISCUSSION. 



Saturday, February 29, 1896. 

 A meeting for Lecture and Discussion Avas holdeu today at 

 eleven o'clock, the President, Francis H. Appletox, in the chair. 

 The following lecture Avas delivered on the John LeAvis Russell 

 Foundation : 



Some Tendencies and Problems in the Evolution of Species 

 AMONG Parasitic Fungi. 



By Professor George F. Atkinson, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 



NotAvithstanding the great amount of information Avhich Ave 

 already possess concerning the development and life histories of 

 parasitic fungi, the labor of each year adds more and more to the 

 stock of our knoAvledge on the subject. There is evidently much 

 more still to be learned before Ave shall be in the possession of all 

 the facts concerning these fungi Avhich it Avould be desirable to 

 knoAV from even a practical standpoint. The accumulating evi- 

 dence of the number of species, the variation in form, the influ- 

 ence of environment, and their peculiar habit or adaptations, 

 suggest that these plants are also affected by the operation of the 

 laws of descent and differentiation, just as other organisms are. 



While Ave can do little more than speculate on the s\ibject at 

 the present time, specuUition is often very fruitful in the outcome, 



