i64 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



received. It seems somewhat strange and more or less amusing that the 

 Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, with its library of 

 scientific serials easily available, could have overlooked such obvious sources 

 of information as those to which it was my privilege to call attention. 



4. Under date of December 7, 1915, a letter of inquiry was received in 

 regard to a specimen designated by the writer as "black granite," included in 

 the New York State mineral exhibit at the San Francisco Exposition and la- 

 beled as coming from Staten Island. In connection with it the question was 

 asked: "Do you know of any such stone and where it is quarried?" My 

 reply was, of course, that the specimen was almost certainly not a granite but 

 a block of our local trap rock or diabase and probably the identical specimen 

 collected by me for the New York State mineral exhibit at the Chicago Cen- 

 tennial Exposition. (See Proc. Nat. Sci. Assoc. Staten Is. 3: 40. May 

 13, 1893.) 



5. Under date of March 24, 1916, the president of the Boyce Fibre Com- 

 pany, addressed a communication to me, enclosing the samples of silk fiber 

 which I have here, stating that they come from a plant "known locally as the 

 silk fiber plant, swamp milkweed and American ramie." (Examination 

 shows it to belong to some species of Asclepias.) The statement was made 

 that when mixed with wool or silk the resulting product could be woven into 

 sweaters, jackets, stockings, etc., and the suggestion was offered that this 

 opened up "the promise of a new home industry for Staten Island," and that 

 " if your association is in po.sition to make an investigation such as will show 

 the practicability of the new enterprise, I shall be most happy to furnish any 

 other information and assistance, etc." Subsequent correspondence failed 

 to elicit any further information of scientific interest and I finally offered the 

 suggestion that the matter be laid before the Staten Island Civic League or the 

 Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, inasmuch as it was evidently brought 

 forward purely as a commercial enterprise. Nothing further in relation to it 

 has since come to my attention. 



Doctor Hollick also submitted the following items for record in the 

 minutes: 



I. In the latter part of 1915 this specimen of a tricarpellate English walnut 

 was found in a lot purchased for the table and it seemed to be worth preserving 

 on account of its teratological interest. A somewhat hasty search through 

 recent botanical literature revealed a number of notes relating to similar speci- 

 mens, as may be seen from the following references: 



Teratological Notes. C. Stuart Gager. Torreya 8: 132-137, /. a-k. 

 June 1908. On page 136 is a note on Tricarpellate English Walnuts which is 

 illustrated m figure i on page 135 by two examples. 



A Tricarpellary Walnut. William H. Lamb. Torreya 12: 290, 291,/. i. 

 Dec. 1 91 2. This article includes an excellent figure of a cross section of a nut 

 in which the three divisions are of equal size. 



Abnormal Fruits of Juglans Regia. J. A. Nieuwland. Amer. Bot. 19: 

 59, 60. May 1913. 



A Tetracarpellary Walnut. F. Alex. McDermott. Torreya 13: 137-139, 



