BOTANICAL GAZETTE. Co 1 
Mr. Meehan discussed the “ Relationship of Helianthus an- 
nuus and H. lenticularis,” two species which have now been 
thrown together in the Synoptical Flora, the latter being con- 
sidered the wild and the former the cultivated state of the com- 
mon sunflower. He exhibited charts to show that H. annuus 
has a campanulate corolla, while that of H. lenticularis is tubu- 
lar, as Nuttall had recognized in naming it #. tubceformis. 
Other differences are not so constant. 
The same speaker then adverted to the retraction of the sta- 
mens in the sunflower by means of the elastic filaments. He 
contended that as the bees distributed pollen from one floret to 
another of the same head, it only constituted self fertilization, 
according to Mr. Darwin’s definition. Mr. Carruthers, of the 
British Museum, spoke in commendation of the careful obser- 
vations which the speaker had made. 
he next paper by Prof. L. M. Underwood, of Syracuse 
University, on “ Some Statistics Concerning the North American 
of 231 species. Of these 120 are peculiar to } 
of which are commonly found in public herbaria, and 60 are 
Probably not represented in any American collection, public or 
private. . 
Miss Grace Anna Lewis, of Philadelphia, showed a chart of 
the vegetable kingdom to learn if it were constructed on right 
Principles 
Speaker had been able to produce gumming by Monilia fructi- 
Sena the fungus of rotting ait, | the bacteria of pear blight, 
and showed specimens caused by the latter. 
The report of the committee on postal matters was, then 
called for, The committee was a pointed last year at Minnea- 
polis, and consisted of Profs. Coulter, Farlow and Bessey. *2€ 
‘ast was th 
