178 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 162. 



ian structures from the ancestral Stegocephalia, 

 which they transmitted to their descendants. 

 The paired occipital condyle, however, upon 

 which Huxley laid so much emphasis, is prob- 

 ably of secondary origin in this grovip, and not 

 of direct derivation from the paired condyle of 

 the Amphibians. 



Dr. F. M. Chapman described the various 

 types of vegetation and the altitudinal distri- 

 bution of birds along the lines of the railroads 

 running from the coast at Vera Cruz into the 

 tablelands of the interior. 



Professor F. E. Lloyd described the abnor- 

 mal assimilative leaves produced by hypertro- 

 IDhy of scales on shoots of Pinus ponderosa after 

 pruning of staminate shoots. The scales which 

 subtend the fascicles so-called are the morpho- 

 logical equivalents of leaves. 



Similar abnormal leaves are produced from 

 the stump after cutting down the trees in cer- 

 tain species of Pine (e. jr., Pinus rigida). These 

 have been regarded as identical with the pri- 

 mary leaves of the seedlings. The comparison 

 of the hypertrophied scales under discussion 

 with the primary leaves of species of Pine 

 studied by Daguillon shows that they differ in 

 certain details, and that they approach in struc- 

 ture to the Abies type of leaf which has periph- 

 eral ducts and double vascular bundles. The 

 leaf of Pseudotsuga comports with this type, 

 and the speaker suggested that the Pines may 

 have been derived phylogenetically from a 

 generalized form represented best among living 

 genera by the genus Pseudotsuga, which com- 

 bines the characters of Abies and Picea to a 

 considerable degree. The exsert bracts are in- 

 termediate between these two genera, Abies and 

 Picea, while the large seminiferous scales cor- 

 respond more nearly to Abies. 



These abnormal leaves of Pinus ponderosa 

 must be regarded as atavistic, and are believed 

 to be of pronounced value in the study of the 

 phylogeny of the group. 



Gary N. Calkins, 

 Secretary of Section. 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCE — SECTION 

 OF GEOLOGY, JANUARY 17, 1898. 



The meeting opened with a paper by Mr. 



Arthur HoUick, entitled ' Further Notes on 

 Block Island ; Geology and Botany. ' Mr. Hol- 

 lick gave a summary of his work done on Block 

 Island in July, 1897, and particularly of his 

 success in tracing eastward from Long Island 

 the Amboy clays which had previously been de- 

 termined by paleontological evidence on Staten 

 Island, Long Island and Martha's Vineyard. 

 Something like fifteen species of Middle Creta- 

 ceous flora, nine of them typical of the Amboy 

 clay, have been found. Mr. Hollick then clas- 

 sified the existing flora of thelsland physiograph- 

 ically into that of the hills, peat bogs, sand 

 dunes and beaches, salt marshes and salt water. 

 In the course of his work he added to the al- 

 ready published lists something like twenty-four 

 new species, though it is not considered that 

 this, by any means, completes the list of pos- 

 sible species that might be found in the spring. 

 The flora, as a whole, is distinctly that of a 

 morainal country, and its nearest analogue is 

 that of Montauk Point. 



Mr. Hollick then offered some suggestions to 

 account for the present peculiar flora of the 

 Island, and particularly for the absence of cer- 

 tain species that would be expected, and showed 

 that two features are to be taken into consider- 

 ation, the geological and the human. Block 

 Island is the only part of the terminal moraine 

 along the New England coast which does not 

 have accompanying the moraine a certain 

 amount of plain land, which would naturally 

 allow a variety in the flora. It is presumable 

 that Block Island also has been practically sepa- 

 rated from the rest of the continent by a deep 

 channel of more than twenty fathoms for a con- 

 siderable time, and that even before the last 

 depression of land the Island was connected to 

 the mainland merely by a small peninsula, and 

 hence the diversity of the flora as compared 

 with the continent, because of the length of 

 separation. The speaker also mentioned exten- 

 sive archaeological discoveries on the west shore 

 of the Island, and gave a list of the shells and 

 implements discovered in several of the kitchen 

 middens, and also of the bones of animals 

 brought to light in the old fireplaces in the sand 

 dunes. He made particular mention, also, of 

 the great number of Littorina, the common 

 periwinkle of Europe, which has never before 



