NOVEMBBB 23, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



703 



the same route. After making collections in 

 other directions from Monterey, he returned to 

 Europe by way of Mexico, reaching London in 

 November, 1834, and bringing with him a col- 

 lection of about fifty thousand herbarium speci- 

 mens, besides a thousand woods and a complete 

 journal of his travels and experiences. He 

 presented his collections to Trinity College, 

 Dublin, and thus became the founder and 

 keeper of that well known herbarium. His 

 journal was lost in transport between Loudon 

 and Dublin, and this together with his con- 

 tinued ill health kept him from publishing an 

 account of his travels and work, which was thus 

 left incomplete at the time of his death, in 1843. 

 The duplicates of his collections were subse- 

 quently distributed in part by his successor, 

 W. H. Harvey, at least two of the sets reach- 

 ing America, one presented to Dr. Gray, the 

 other to Dr. Torrey. Though no general report 

 on his collections was ever published, a large 

 number of species have been described from 

 them, more than forty receiving the specific 

 name coulteri. The information on which this 

 outline was based was drawn principally from 

 scanty published records together with a series 

 of letters from Coulter to A. P. and Alphonse 

 DeCandolle, which were exhibited at the meet- 

 ing by Mr. Coville through the covirtesy of Dr. 

 Casimir DeCandolle, of Geneva. 



Mr. William Palmer exhibited some speci- 

 mens of birds ha\'ing albinistic feet, saying that 

 albinism of the beak and feet was rare, and that he 

 had never seen an example of the former except 

 in complete albinos. Partial albinism he thought 

 to be due to temporary causes, such as defective 

 nutrition, and he instanced cases in which white 

 feathers had, upon moulting, been replaced by 

 those normally colored. 



Mr. F. A. Lucas spoke on the gigantic ex- 

 tinct birds of Patagonia, briefly reviewing Seiior 

 Ameghino's recent memoir on the subject. He 

 considered that these birds belonged to an ex- 

 tinct avifauna, represented by a few forms like 

 Palamedea and Psophia, and that many forms 

 were needed to fill in the gap between them 

 and existing birds. It was useless, he thought, 

 to make any comparisons with struthious birds 

 and he deprecated the use of the divisions 

 Batitse diXiA Carinatse as being unnatural. 



Dr. Theo. Gill spoke On the Belone and Sarginos 

 of Aristotle, and the misuse of zoological names 

 of the ancients by writers like Linnaeus, d-v/elling 

 at length on the Belone and Sarginos. The 

 Belone, as is quite evident from the several 

 passages wherein the name occurs, was the 

 small pipe-fish, or Syngnathid, and its misappli- 

 cation to the gar-fish was entirely unjustifiable. 

 The gar-fish, however, was undoubtedly familiar 

 to the ancients and the old Greek name can be 

 discovered by a comparison of the name of un- 

 identified species enumerated by Aristotle and 

 those now current in Greece and the Archipelago. 

 One of the hitherto unidentified Aristotelian 

 names is Sargiiios, and at the present time that 

 name under a slightly diflferent form still pre- 

 vails and is applied to the gar-fish. The 

 modern variants are Zargana and Sargannos. 

 The application of Belone to the gar-fishes was 

 unfortunate, but happily the name must be 

 given up and Esox used in its place. Esox 

 itself, however, is another example of misuse 

 of ancient names, for the Esox mentioned by 

 Pliny was apparently a sturgeon. The misuse 

 of Trochilus and Amia was also dwelt upon. 



Dr. Erwin F. Smith exhibited some plants 

 showing the effect of inoculation with the organ- 

 ism of cucumber blight. 



F. A. Lucas, Secretary. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 111th regular meeting was held Novem- 

 ber 7, 1895. 



Mr. Hubbard read a paper entitled ' Some 

 Insects which brave the dangers of the Pitcher 

 Plant,' giving observations supplementary to 

 those recorded 20 years ago by Riley, on the 

 insects found in connection with Sarracenia 

 variolaris. Mr. Hubbard's observations were 

 made ujion S. flava, a species common in 

 Georgia and Florida. Mr. Hubbard found the 

 larvse of the two species of Xanthoptera de- 

 scribed by Riley living unharmed in these 

 pitchers. He found that an enormous number 

 of insects were captured by the pitchers, among 

 others the honey bee, species of Bombus and 

 Megachile, sand wasps and many other insects. 

 He found that a Sphegid makes its nesting 

 place within the pitchers and that a species of 

 Lycosa habitually spreads its web within them. 



