182 



Mr. George H. Powers, of Boston, and Messrs. J. A. Allen 

 and W. H. Niles, of Cambridge, were elected Resident Mem- 

 bers. 



December 3, 1862. 

 The President in the chair. 



Dr. Pickering referred to two Esquimaux now on exhibition in this 

 city. From their low stature, florid complexion, broad, flat counte- 

 nance, with the profile very slightly projecting, one would be disposed 

 to reject the idea of affinity with the general aboriginal population of 

 this continent. But the sea-going tribes of Northwest America, of 

 which he had seen the Chinooks, are intermediate in aspect ; having 

 very generally a lighter complexion, and less prominence of profile, 

 than the interior or hunting tribes. He had remarked, that the 

 strange custom among the Chinooks of flattening the skull produced 

 " unusual breadth of face ; " and he now thought that the purpose 

 aimed at may have been the Esquimaux standard of personal beauty. 

 In addition to his published opinion that, with one minor exception, 

 America was originally peopled from the Northwest by the sea-going 

 tribes following the coast, personal inspection now satisfied him that 

 the Esquimaux are Mongolians, and that there is no distinct physical 

 race of man in the Arctic regions. 



Mr. S. H. Scudder gave an account of the structure of 

 Pogonia ophioglossoides Nutt., and of the probable manner 

 in which its fertilization is effected : — 



The plant is of special interest, since It belongs to the only group 

 of Orchids of which Darwin In his recent work has given no account. 

 The flower is thrust out at nearly right angles to the upright stem, 

 the column being a little raised from the horizontal ; the labellum is 

 spatulate, heavily crested and fringed, the distal half depending some- 

 what ; the shield-shaped, stigmatic surface Is situated at the upper 

 front portion of the column, which is surmounted by a pretty deep 

 clinandrum, with an elevated, jagged border ; and to the hind part of 

 this, the curiously shaped, aurlculated anther Is attached as a lid by a 

 narrow, elastic hinge, which compels the anther-lid to remain deeply 

 seated In the clinandrum, whose thin, jagged edges border it on every 

 side. Upon the under surface of the anther-lid, as it thus lies, are sit- 

 uated the two bunches of poUen, confluent, forming a prominent oval 

 mass ; they are not pollinia, that Is, they have no caudlcle and disc, 

 but are only pollen-masses, completely sessile, which a slight touch 



