918 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 208. 



some weeks' study to the insects of this family 

 and called attention to the excellent use which 

 may be made of characters in the mandibles, 

 palpi, antennse, frontal fovea, clypeus, wings, 

 abdomen, pygidium and legs. He would give 

 generic rank to the sub-genera of Fox and Kohl, 

 and would divide the family into four sub fam- 

 ilies. He showed that all of the Fabrician 

 species, of Crabro, 17 in number, have been 

 placed in other genera, and he finds himself em- 

 barrassed to indicate the type of the genus 

 Crah-o. 



L. O. Howard, 



Secretary. 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON — 20STH 

 MEETING, DECEMBER 30TH. 



Professor A. D. Hopkins exhibited some 

 diagrams illustrating a sj'stem divised by him 

 for showing in a graphic manner the evolution- 

 ary development of families, genera and species. 



Mr. Charles L. Pollard discussed ' Floral 

 Asymmetry in Chammcrista,'' explaining with 

 the aid of diagrams the peculiar irregularity in 

 the corolla and calyx whereby the banner petal, 

 instead of occupying a normal uppermost posi- 

 tion, has undergone a torsion of 90° to the left. 

 This remarkable discovery was made originally 

 by Professor E. L. Greene, who considered that 

 it entitled the Chami?ecristoid Cassias to rank 

 as a distinct genus. Other generic characters 

 were pointed out by Mr. Pollard. 



Mr. Herbert J. Weber spoke of ' The Affini- 

 ties of Casuarina,' discussing the external re- 

 semblance of Casuarina to Equisetum and the 

 very close resemblance to Ephedra of the Gne- 

 tacese. The theory of their probable deriva- 

 tion from this group was accepted. 



The subject of Chalazogamy in Casuarina was 

 discussed somewhat in detail, the speaker tak- 

 ing exception to Nawaschin's theory that Chal- 

 azogamy is a primitive type of fecundation 

 from which porogamy has been developed The 

 principal reasons advanced for thinking Xawa- 

 schin in error were : 



1. Porogamy is the general type of fecunda- 

 tion in the Angiosperms, and is of special in- 

 terest, as regards the Monocotyledons, which 

 doubtless had a separate origin from Casuarina 

 and other Dicotyledons, but were, neverthe- 



less, derived from the Gymnosperms, where 

 uniformly a slightly different type of porogamy 

 from that occurring in the Angiosperms exists. 

 As in the Monocotyledons, porogamy developed 

 from a Gymuospermous type of fecundation, 

 the speaker thought it more reasonable to think 

 that the same type of fecundation had also 

 appeared first in the ancestors of the Dicoty- 

 ledons. 



2. From the universal presence of the micro- 

 pyle in all Gymuospermous and Augiospermous 

 plants. 



3. From the universal location of the egg 

 cell in all Angiosperms in close proximity to 

 the micropyle, instead of the chalaza. 



The speaker took the ground that Chalazog- 

 amy may probably be looked upou as a degen- 

 erate form of fecundation rather than a primi- 

 tive type. 



Mr. O. F. Cook presented a paper entitled 

 'Four Categories of Species,' in which it was 

 claimed that the general problems of taxonomy 

 are four in number, and that from the stand- 

 point of the work of investigation they may be 

 looked upon as practically distinct. The term 

 species has been employed in treating all 

 four lines, being used (1) for arbitrary section 

 of lines of individual succession, the 'species' 

 of phylogeny and paleontology. (2) The in- 

 sular or segregated species, the original and 

 still the leading use of the term. (3) The in- 

 cipient species, more properly called the sub- 

 species. (4) The artificially selected or hybrid- 

 ized ' species. It was insisted that the fact of 

 segregation is capable of establishment by suffi- 

 ciently careful and extended observation ; that 

 it gives our most important clew to the present 

 tendencies of evolution, and that the term 

 ' species ' should be restricted to naturally seg- 

 regated groups of individuals. 



F. A. Lucas, 



Secretary. 



THE NEW YORK SECTION OF THE AMERICAN 

 CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 



The local Section held its regular meeting 

 at the College of the City of New York on the 

 9th inst.. Dr. William McMurtrie presiding, 

 and ninety-five members and visitors were pres- 

 ent. An unusually long and interesting pro- 



