656 
is by J. S. Kingsley and is devoted to the ‘As- 
tacoid and Thalassinoid Crustacea.’ The bal- 
ance of the number is devoted to Reviews and 
News. The very useful list of appointments to 
various scientific positions here and abroad is 
unusually full. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 310TH 
MEETING, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21sT. 
F. A. Lucas made some remarks on the 
flightless Harris’ Cormorant, stating that the 
keel of the sternum was lacking save the an- 
terior point to which the furcula was attached, 
that the pelvic girdle was very robust, though 
not quite equal in this respect to the larger 
Pallas’ cormorant. The nearest relative was 
Phalacrocorax penicillatus. 
O. P. Hay presented ‘A Census of North 
American Fossil Vertebrates,’ giving the num- 
ber of genera and species in each order. Special 
attention was called to the great number of 
selachians represented in the Sub-Carboniferous 
and their apparent scarcity in the succeeding 
formations. 
V.K. Chesnut presented some ‘ Notes on a 
Preliminary Catalogue of Plants Poisonous to 
Stock,’ saying that some plants were not in 
themselves poisonous but acted by clogging the 
intestines, perforating and inflaming the tissues 
of the eyes, nose or intestinal tract, or by the 
evolution of gases which distended the stomach 
and intestines to such an extent that the lungs 
and heart could not properly perform their 
work. Corn smut was deleterious from the 
expansion of the dry powdery spores, while 
some molds whose spores will germinate and 
grow in the body apparently produce a poison- 
ous compound concomitantly with their growth. 
It was noted that some plants vary greatly in 
virulence.at different seasons, and that others 
which were useful in small quantities were in- 
jurious when fed continuously. 
H. J. Webber spoke on ‘Polyembryony in 
Orange Hybrids,’ calling attention to the curi- 
ous results obtained in hybridizing the Trifo- 
liate orange (Citrus trifoliata) with the Sweet 
orange (Citrus aurantium). In a number of in- 
stances two totally different seedlings were 
produced from the same hybrid seed. Of the 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Von. X. No. 253. 
numerous embryos produced in asingle orange 
seed, one apparently develops normally from 
the fecundated egg cell and the other from cer- 
tain cells of the nucellus near the upper part of 
the embryo sac, which become specialized, di- 
vide rapidly, and pushing out into the embryo 
sac form embryos. Usually several of these 
adventive embryos are developed in each seed. 
In hybridization the embryo developed from 
the egg cell is naturally the only one which 
shows any influence of the male parent. The 
adventive embryos which spring from the nu- 
cellar tissue of the mother parent could not be 
expected to show any effect of the cross. In 
crosses of the Sweet orange with pollen of the 
Trifoliate orange several seeds have developed 
more than one seedling, of which one has tri- 
foliolate leaves similar to the pollen parent and 
the other, or others, unifoliolate leaves like the: 
sweet orange mother parent. In such cases 
the speaker thought there can be no doubt that 
the trifoliolate seedling develops from the egg 
cell and is the only one affected by the hybrid- 
ization, while the unifoliolate seedlings develop: 
from adyventive embryos and are not affected by 
the cross. 
Albert F. Woods gave some ‘Additional Notes. 
on Spot Disease of Carnations,’ stating that as 
the result of long experimentation he was able 
to positively confirm his former statements that 
the disease was not produced by bacteria, but. 
was caused by the punctures of Aphids and 
Thrips. The curious device by which the slen- 
der bill of the aphis was enabled to be inserted 
between the plant cells was also described. 
O. F. Coox, 
Secretary. 
SECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY 
OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY 
OF SCIENCES. 
THE regular meeting of the Section was held 
on October 23d. Dr. E. L. Thorndike reported 
some experiments on mental fatigue. The gen- 
eral plan of this investigation has already been 
described in ScreNcE of May 19th. The ex- 
periments reported confirm the earlier conclu- 
sion that there is no decrease in amount, 
speed or accuracy of work in the evenings of 
days of hard mental work over mornings or in 
