No 144.] 141 



most excellent the Secretary ever read or heard on the great Ame- 

 rican native grain. The club adjourned till Tuesday, April 18, 

 at noon. 



H. MEIGS, Secretary. 



Tuesday, JlprillS^lSbi. 

 Present — Judge Livingston, Solon Robinson, Berriam of Illi- 

 nois, Professor Mapes, Mr. Elliott, Mr. Bullock of the Banner of 

 Industry, Rev. Mr. Center, Professor Hooper and Mr. Coleman of 

 Brooklyn, Judge Van Wyck, Mr. Lodge, Mr. Scott, Mr. Judd,Mr. 

 Mundy of Metuchin, Jersey. General Chandler, Mr. Lowe, Col. 

 Travers and others. More than thirty members in all. Hon. 

 Robert Swift Livingston in the chair. Henry Meigs, Secretary. 



The Secretary read the following papers prepared by him, viz. 



INSECTS IN PLANTS.— (From Balfour.) 

 Ear-cockles, purples, or peppercorn is a disease affecticg, specially 

 grains of wheat. The infected grains become first of a dark 

 green, and ultimately black. They become rounded like small 

 peppercorns (hence its name), but with one or more deep fur- 

 rows on their surface, the glumes spread open, and the awns be- 

 come twisted. The blighted grains become full of a moist white 

 cottony matter, which, when moistened and put under the micro- 

 scope, is seen to consist of a multitude of minute individuals of 

 the vibrio tritici, or eel of wheat. The animalcules deposit their 

 eggs in the ovary, and their young are hatched in eight or ten 

 days. Henslow calculates that fifiy thousand of the young may 

 be contained in a moderately sized grain of wheat. This vibrio 

 retains its vitality long; it will remain in a dry state six or seven 

 years, and then when moistened with water revives. 



Cellular Structure. 

 The formation of cells from nuclei, and their fissiparous divi- 

 sion (fissiparous — the part separated lives), are by some attributed 

 to different electrical currents excited by the chemical actions 

 going on in the cell. Cells are produced with great rapidity, 

 especially in the case of fungi. Lindley calculates that the cells 



