58 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



The following items were presented and discussed: 



By Dr. Arthur HoUick— (i) A paper on Quercus heterophylla in the 

 Clove Valley (see this issue, p. 32) illustrated with photographs and her- 

 barium specimens of leaves. 



(2) Herbarium specimens from the filled-in area in the vicinity of Ar- 

 lington station on the North Shore branch of the Staten Island Rapid 

 Transit Railroad, with the following notes : 



Previous articles on the flora of this locality are Recently Introduced 

 Grasses and Sedges (Proc. Staten Is. Assoc. Arts and Sci. 2*: 189) and 

 Notes on Introduced Plants Collected near Arlington, Staten Island (Ibid. 

 3': 62). 



On September 12, 1917, this interesting area was again explored and 

 two additions to our local flora were collected, viz., Anoda triangularis 

 (Willd.) D.C., a native of Mexico, and Melochia corchorifolia L., a native 

 of tropical regions. It is hardly to be expected that these species will per- 

 sist as permanent residents, although it is interesting to note that speci- 

 mens of Sesamum indicum L., also a tropical species, were collected there 

 in 1910 and again in 1917; but, of course, we do not know that the 1917 

 plants were the direct descendants of those of 1910. . They may have been 

 introduced de novo subsequently. 



Among specimens collected in 1908 and only recently identified are sev- 

 eral of the genus Atriplex, one of which proves to be A. laciniata L., a 

 species not previously recorded from Staten Island. 



(3) An albino specimen of purple gerardia, Agalinis purpurea (L.) Brit- 

 ton, collected at New Dorp, Sept. 15, 1917, by Mr. Harold K. Decker. In 

 Britton and Brown's Illustrated Flora this species is described as " rarely 

 white." 



(4) A typical specimen of a glaciated stone, a limestone cobble, from 

 the boulder till excavated for the site of the new museum building at the 

 corner of Stuyvesant Place and Wall street. Saint George. 



By Mr. Wm. T. Davis — (i) Observations on herring gulls at the new 

 Silver Lake reservoir, as follows : 



Early in November, 1917, herring gulls, Larus argentatus Pont., began 

 to visit the Silver Lake reservoir. On the afternoon of November 18 six- 

 teen gulls were counted in the reservoir ; on the 22d one hundred and 

 thirty-eight, and on the 29th one hundred and five. The birds appeared in 

 the afternoons, the first of them usually about two or three o'clock,, on 

 their way across Staten Island from Newark Bay and the Sound to their 

 roosting places by the sea. On the date last mentioned it was a bright 

 sunny day, and the gulls often rose from the reservoir to fly about in 

 circles and then alight on the surface of the water again. In fact they 

 were indulging in much fancy flying. On this as well as on previous occa- 

 sions the birds resting on the surface of the water would duck under 

 and then flop their wings while rising partly out of it ; in fact were taking 

 a bath in the fresh water. , This is their well known habit in other reser- 

 voirs that they frequent, such as the one in Central Park, New York City. 



