Proceedings of Royal Society of Canada. 155 
with a view of eliciting information from those who have 
in past years had, or now have upon the spot, the oppor- 
tunity of observing the differences in language, the social 
customs, and the mental and physical characteristics of the 
different tribes of Indians. Education has now been tried 
for some years in a few localities. What success has at- 
tended the effort? Has there been any proof or disproof 
of the received impression that the children of the Indians 
show, up to a certain point, a fair capacity for mental 
work, but that at this point the intellectual development 
appears to cease? If this impression is correct, has the 
cause been studied ? Many such interesting fields of inquiry 
are suggested by the circular. 
Among the papers in geology and biology were the 
following :— 
On the Nympheeacee.* 
By Gxnorcn Lawson, Ph.D., LL.D. 
“ An account was given of the general conformation and of 
the arrangement of tissue systems in the organs of these 
plants, and of special features in their organization and 
minute anatomy. The South American Water Lily, Vic- 
toria Regia, had been, years ago, carefully studied by Plan- 
chon, whose researches were published in Flores des Serres, 
Vol. VI., p. 249, &., and by Trecul, who illustrated the more 
important facts of its structure, and the development of 
organs, in the Annals des Sciences Naturelles, Botanique, 
4 ser., I., pp. 145-172. Some facts well known a quarter of 
a century ago seem to be forgotten now. Lately, De Bary, 
in the Comparative Anatomy of Phanerogams and Ferns, 
and J. H. Blake, of Cambridge, in the new Annals of 
Botany (August, 1887), question the explanations given of 
the structure of the prickles of the Victoria, and especially 
the character of the ostiole or depression at its apex. The 
author of the present paper had shown, as long ago as 
1855, the true character of these prickles, and that the 
ostiole had no special function, as had been argued (and in- 
