1877. ] Proceedings of Societies. 59 
large portion of this order of plants. In grasses, Cyperaceæ, and some 
rushes also, the floral parts were very exact in their time of open- 
ing. In the plantains, Plantago, the pistils appeared a day or more in 
advance of the stamens, and these last appeared at about a regular time 
in each day. In Luzula campestris he had by a series of observations 
timed it exactly. Before nine the anthers were perfect, but by ten the 
pollen had been all committed to the winds and only dried matter re- 
mained. So far as he could ascertain, meteorological conditions did not 
influence the time in the least, in this case. 
August 15th. An interesting communication from Dr. Charles Pick- 
ering on photographs of Tasmanians at the Centennial Exposition was 
read by the president. Dr. Pickering has been enabled by means of 
these portraits to refer the originals to the Papuan race or large New 
Guinea negro. 
Mr. Martindale called attention to the genus Opuntia, the only genus 
of Cactacez found east of the Mississippi in the Northern States. Dr. 
Engelmann describes one species under the name Opuntia Rafinesquit, 
which includes two or three of the species described by Rafinesque. 
Mr. Martindale had collected in the neighborhood of Haddonfield, N. J,, 
what he believes to be Opuntia vulgaris, a species which Dr. Engelmann 
had not before seen from any locality north of the Falls of the Potomac. 
The characters of the two species were described and contrasted. A 
specimen from Woodbury, N. J., was decided to be Opuntia Rafinesqutt, 
as were also those from the neighborbood of the coast. Mr. Redfiel 
had heretofore doubted the existence of Opuntia Rafinesquii in this 
quarter, and now believes that the form so called was but a variety of 
Opuntia vulgaris. 
~ Dr. Allen called attention to a deformation in a domestic cow similar 
to that described by him recently as existing in a Brahmin bull. In the 
case under consideration a supernumerary anterior limb grows from the 
shoulder, but it ends in one toe only, instead of three, as in the former 
case. There is, however, a rudimentary toe and a small protuberance 
farther up the shaft of the metacarpus. 
August 29th. A paper entitled Note on the Discovery of Repre- 
sentatives of two Orders of Fossils new to the Cretaceous Formation of 
North America, by Wm. M. Gabb, was presented for publication. 
September 6th. A paper entitled On the Lingual Dentition, Jaw, and 
Genitalia of Carelia, Onchidella, and other Pulmonata, by Wm. G. Bin- 
ney, was presented for publication. 
Mr. Meehan called attention to a specimen of an exceedingly curious 
plant, Welwitschia mirabilis, on exhibition in the Portuguese African 
Section of Agricultural Hall, Centennial Exhibition. He also spoke of 
his observations upon Mentzelia ornata. The plant blooms at night. 
The flowers open for four nights in succession, after which they cease to 
do so. One flower was covered with gauze and found to produce seed : 
_ 48 freely as those not so protected. | dh ec 
