335 



The yelk, as in birds, is wholly withdrawn into the abdomen, at 

 about the time of, or soon after, hatching. Recently hatched skates 

 were found with a very small portion of yelk still protruding, and 

 others not hatched had the yelk in very nearly the same condition. 



The Librarian called attention to the botanical library be- 

 queathed to the Society by the late Dr. B. D. Green, now for 

 the first time upon our shelves ; stating that it was far richer 

 than was supposed, and that Mrs. Grreen had more than car- 

 ried out the liberal intentions of Dr. Grreen in the addition 

 of many works of rare value. 



Dr. J. C. White asked the attention of the Society to sev- 

 eral of the skeletons from the menagerie collection, recently 

 mounted by Mr. Sceva; and stated, that, when the work be- 

 fore Mr. Sceva was accomplished, the Society would be in 

 possession of the finest series of mounted skeletons in the 

 countiy. 



Dr. A. A. Gould stated that the Record Book of the Lin- 

 naean Society of New England had recently come into his 

 possession ; and he proposed to deposit it in the archives of 

 this Society, accompanying his gift with the following epit- 

 ome of the Records : — 



Entering, as our Society now does, upon a new phase of its career, It 

 may be deemed a fitting occasion to take a retrospective glance at the 

 beginnings, the prwiordia and incunabula, of natural history in this 

 region. Up to the last fifty years, no one, so far as I can ascertain, 

 had given any attention to the subject, sufficiently, at least, to entitle 

 him to be called a naturalist. The most Important exception was the 

 Rev. Manassah Cutler, who published quite a comprehensive and sci- 

 entific paper In the " Memoirs of the American Academy," vol. I. pp. 

 396-494, entitled " Account of some of the Vegetable Productions 

 naturally growing in this Part of America, botanically arranged." 

 This, with some treatises on the medicinal properties of herbs, some 

 Investigations Into the natural history of the Bible, Mather's " Mag- 

 nalia," Harris's " Natural History of the Bible," Thacher's " Dispensa- 

 tory," and a few scattered papers of similar character, comprise them 

 all. We might, perhaps, except also the renowned Dr. Benjamin 

 Waterhouse, who seems to have brought with him from Holland some 

 general notions of systematic natural history : at least, he published 

 a pamphlet, of which I have a copy, entitled " Heads of a Course 



