14 The Royal Society of Canada. 



to the underlying Iluionian, by some geologists in the United 

 States supposed to be of the same age. 



Mr. W. Haunders, of London, Ont., read a paper " On the in- 

 fluence of Sex on Hybrids among Fruits." This paper gave some 

 of the results of Mr. Saunders' experience in hybridizing fruits. 

 The facts cited confirmed the view that the influence of the female 

 is more strongly expressed in the habit, character of growth and 

 constitution of the plant, while the influence of the male is more 

 distinctly seen in the form, color and quality of the fruit, and, in 

 the case of hybrid grapes, in the size and form of the seeds also. 



A paper by Mr. G. F. Matthew, of St. John, N. B., on " The 

 Method of distinguishing Lacustrine from Marine Deposits," was 

 read by Prof. Bailey, of Fredericton. 



Dr. Grant, of Ottawa, read a communication on " The Inferior 

 Maxilla of the Phoca Grcenlandiea, from Green's Creek near 

 Ottawa," 



Principal Dawson, of Montreal, read a note on " Spores and 

 spore-cases, from the Erian formation," giving results which are 

 set forth more at length in a paper in this nuniher, on "Bhizo- 

 •carps in the Palaezoic Period." 



Professor Bailey read a paper on the folding of the carboniferous 

 strata in the Maritime Provinces by Mr. E. Gilpin, jr. After a 

 preliminary sketch of the carboniferous measures of the Lower 

 Provinces, the writer described each of its great subdivisions as 

 exposed at various points. The lower coal-measures are met in 

 southern New Brunswick as fine sediments and grits, and resemble 

 the same measures as found at Horton and elsewhere. They are 

 represented in Cape Breton county and in Newfoundland by great 

 beds of conglomerate. Sections show a line of minimum deposition 

 along the Cobequids to Cape George, and thence through Bras d'Or 

 to Cape Bay. The carboniferous limestones are described as pass- 

 ing into the succeeding measures, except at places in Cape Breton 

 and southern New Brunswick, where they were folded before the 

 millstone-grit period. The greatest depression of this period would 

 appear to have been in the Kichmond district, and to have gradu- 

 ally diminished to the north-west and north-east. The points of 

 maximum accumulation appear to have been at the Joggins and in 

 Bichmond county. These measures in Newfoundland and Cape 

 Breton pass regularly into the succeeding coal-measures. In Pictou 

 County they were extensively folded before the later measures were 



