656 The American Naturalist. [July, 
keen critical and productive faculty deals a blow to the cause of com- 
parative anatomy of the vertebrata throughout the world which can 
hardly be measured. We tender to the American Philosophical Society 
and to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, of which Pro- 
fessor Cope was a life long member, an expression of our deep regret at 
their loss, and of our readiness to codperate with them in the establish- 
ment of some suitable memorial. 
. Henry F. OSBORN. 
Poe l de. Ponar 
Mr. A. E. Crampton, Jr. gave a brief abstract of a paper by F. C. 
Baker on “ Notes on Variations in the Apex of Gasteropod Molluscs.” 
Professor Bashford Dean and Mr. F. P. Summer reported on the 
spawning habits of Petromyzon wilderi at Van Cortlandt Pond. 
Mr. H. E. Crampton, Jr. reported on some Coalescence-Experiments 
with Lepidoptera. 
A paper on the “ Vertical Distribution of Plankton in Deep-Sea- 
Collections from Puget Sound” by Prof. James I. Peck and Mr. N. R. 
Harrington was read by title.—Gary N. CALKINS, Secretary. 
The Academy of Science of St, Louis.—At the meeting of 
the Academy of Science of St. Louis on the 7th of June, 1897, 
twenty-one persons present, Mr. Robert Combs, of Ames, Iowa, pre- 
sented a paper entitled Plants Collected in the District of Cienfuegos, 
Province of Santa Clara, in 1895-1896. The paper embraces the 
results of a collection extending from the commencement of the rainy 
season of one year until the close of the dry season the following 
spring, the territory covered by the collection lying between the 
entrance of the Bay of Cienfuegos, on the south coast of Cuba, up the 
bay and the river Damuji to Rodas, and extending back from the 
river to Yaguaramos and almost to the Cienega de Zapato, a region 
including nearly all kinds of soil and condition found upon the island, 
except those of the mountain regions and the mud swamps. A brief 
statement was made concerning the origin of the Cuban flora and its 
affinities with that of continental Central America, rather than the 
geographically nearer Floridan region. 
The paper comprised a full catalogue of the collections made, which 
had been determined at the herbarium of Harvard University, and of 
which several sets had been distributed to the larger herbaria. 
Professor F. E. Nipher made some remarks on the difficulties yet 
involved in the theories of the ether. 
WILLIAM TRELEASE, Recording Secretary. 
