Miscellanies. 393 



November 6, 1838. — Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood, Vice President, in 



the chair. 



J. E. Teschemacher, Esq., made a report on the Gomphocarpus 

 fruticosus, a native of the Cape of Good Hope. It is one of the As- 

 clepiadeas, allied to Asclepias Syriaca ; differing from it in the shape of 

 the wings of the seed vessel and in not having a milky juice. The 

 coma is composed of the pollen tubes and not of the compressed calyx, 

 as in the composite plants. 



Mr. Teschemacher exhibited some crystals of stilbite and fluor 

 spar, illustrative of the theory of decrement by solid angles, in which 

 nature strictly accords with theory. 



Dr. J. Wyman exhibited the skeleton of a human foetus of about 

 the third month, illustrating the comparative size of the head and the 

 rest of the body, the advanced state of ossification of the ribs and jaws 

 beyond other parts of the skeleton ; this last observation is interesting 

 in connection with the fact, that respiration and nursing, in which the 

 jaws and ribs play an important part, are the first voluntary acts of 

 the new born child. 



Mr. Edward Appleton had noticed a hyacinth whose bulb had 

 been accidentally planted in an inverted position. A scape had de- 

 scended into the earth and was terminated by a spike of colorless 

 flowers, the whole plant being six inches in length. "When placed 

 erect in the earth they did not survive- 



Dr. C. T. Jackson exhibited some maize from the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, with only two kernels in each husk, and stated that it was not 

 yet determined whether it was a new species or merely a variety. 



Dr. Ray of Augusta, Ga., being present, observed that it was not 

 unlikely to be the normal form of the fruit of the bread corn. A par- 

 tial calyx encloses two kernels, and a number of these are enclosed in 

 a common calyx. It is supposed that the partial calyces are obliterated 

 by pressure of the kernel enlarged under cultivation, thus forming the 

 ear as we usually find it. He states that this form had appeared in 

 Tennessee, extending to Georgia, and did great damage to the crops, 

 its farina being disseminated to the impoverishment of the full ear. 



Dr. C T. Jackson gave an analysis of Indian pipe-stone from the 

 famous quarry of Coteau du Prairie, and brought from thence by Mr. 

 Catlin, the first white man allowed by the Indians to visit it. The 

 layers of pipe-stone are overlaid by polished quartz rock in which 

 are found relievos, which must have been wrought by the hand of 

 man ; the Indians however declare them to be the tracks of the Great 

 Spirit. It is usually called steatite, but is not this mineral ; it is har- 

 der than gypsum and softer than carbonate of lime. Dr. Jackson 



Vol. XXXVII, No. 2.— July-October, 1839. 50 



