1877.] Seientifie Serials. 191 
certain soft-bodied crickets upon cucumber vines and had conjectured 
that they were specimens of a Myrmecophila, but there had been no 
confirmation of his supposition. Mr. Scudder made some further state- 
ments in regard to the Monoplistide, the family to which this genus 
belongs, and exhibited a specimen of the European species of Myrme- 
cophila, which is found in ants’ nests. 
Mr. S. H. Scudder said that he was working upon a collection of fos- 
sil ants from South Park, Colorado. Heer, in his work on the fossil in- 
sects of GEningen and Radoboj, had found that most of the fossil ants dis- 
covered were winged females. It seemed reasonable that this should be 
s0, as the winged insects were the most likely to fall into the water and 
be drowned, and especially the females who are much more heavy- 
bodied than the males. Mr. Scudder had found about forty species of 
ants in this collection, mostly belonging to the Formicidae, but also to 
the Myrmicide and Poneridæ. Most of the specimens were winged 
females. In amber fossils most of the specimens of ants are workers. 
ACADEMY or Natura Sciences, Philadelphia. — December 19th. 
Mr. Meehan detailed some experiments of his own on the growth of 
wood, by disbarking cherry-trees in June, and watching the process. 
The outer series of wood cells of last year formed generating tissue 
from which the new season’s wood was formed, the outermost layer of 
the new growth forming the new bark, which had no generative power. 
A few of these bark cells, in some instances, remained imperfect wood 
cells, with generative power, and from these nuclei the future protuber- 
ance was formed, the tissue continuing to reproduce and form a new 
layer annually as in ordinary wood growth. Instances of various kinds 
of growth of this character were described. The varying vital power 
of cells in different parts of the structure, as detailed in his remarks, 
were then taken to illustrate the various forms of eccentricity often noted 
in wood growth, as also the occasional appearance of bark within the 
Structure and between the annual layers of wood. 
a ns 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS.* 
THE GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE. — January, 1877. The Arctic Ex- 
pedition, the Results, the Outbreak of Scurvy, the Welcome Home. In- 
ternational Exploration of Africa; the Share of Portugal. The Abbé 
Desgodius on Tibet. | 
ANNALS anD MaGazine or Natura History. — December, 1876- 
New and Peculiar Mollusca of the Kellia, Lucina, Cyprina, and Corbula 
Families procured in the “ Valorous” Expedition, by J. E. Jeffreys. List 
of Mollusca collected by the Rev. A. E. Eaton, at Spitzbergen, etc., de- 
termined by J. G. Jeffreys. Anatomical and Morphological Researches 
* The articles enumerated under this head will be for the most part selected. 
