THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 77 



the direction of Prof. F. W. Putnam, his immediate suc- 

 cessor in office, and it has become one of the best known 

 and most useful institutions of its character in the coun- 

 try. 



Mr. J. S. Kingsley (who is now conducting micro- 

 scopic examinations and zoological investigations at Salem 

 Neck) gave a familiar talk upon the eye. He first described 

 the human eye and explained, with the aid of blackboard 

 drawings, how the eye receives the object on the retina, 

 and how the optic nerve connects the retina with the brain. 

 The different parts of the picture are produced on dif- 

 ferent sections of the retina, each section taking its own, 

 and the brain somehow putting these parts together to 

 form the perfect picture. In the classes of animals other 

 than the vertebrates, eyes are not always placed in the 

 head, nor are they always two in number. He explained 

 this in the case of starfishes, worms, and in certain mol- 

 Insks, which have a large number of eyes. 



Mr. John H. Sears of Salem was called upon to speak 

 of the seashore plants, many of which he exhibited and 

 described. He also said that many of the plants found 

 here were not peculiar to the seashore, for they could be 

 found about us on the mainland. Among the woods which 

 he considered indigenous to Plum Island were the pitch 

 pine, white and red oaks, maple, juniper, and some 

 others ; and also certain shrubs, many of which are to be 

 found on the mainland. He also spoke of two forms of 

 grape vine to be found here, and exhibited the plum 

 bush, with some of the fruit upon it, this being the fruit 

 from which the Island takes its name. 



Prof. A. C. Perkins of Brooklyn, N. Y., and formerly 

 principal of Phillips Academy, Exeter; Messrs. Alfred 

 Osgood of Newburyport, N. A. Horton of Salem, C. 

 A. Say ward of Ipswich, and others offered remarks. 



