1108 The American Naturalist. [December, 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
Natural Science Association of Staten Island.—June 10, 
1893.—Mr. Wm. T. Davis exhibited specimens of Iva frutescens and 
read the following paper upon * The Influence of the Past Winter 
on the High-Water Shrub. " 
An examination of the High-Water Shrabs, (Iva frutescens,) during 
the past few days, has disclosed an interesting fact, which is no doubt 
entirely due to the severe weather of the past winter. A glance along 
the meadow creeks show, as yet, but a gray line of bushes with numer- 
ous short sprouts starting either at their roots or a few inches above 
them on last year's wood. On the 7th of May, 1892, while observing 
the sea-side finches, the High-Water Shrubs were noticed to be coming 
into leaf midway up the stems, and by the middle of May it was difi- 
cult to secure a good view of the finches owing to the number of leaves. 
This year there would be no difficulty, for even at this date they are as 
bare as in the winter, having retained their vitality for only five or six 
inches above the ground. Someof the dead /va stems show evidence 
of being three or four years old, so there is this proof also that the past 
winter has been the hardest one for the species vue at least that 
length of time. 
Mr. Davis nip read the following : * Local Notes upon the Opossum 
and Red Fox 
The A visitation, which was commented upon in these Pro- 
ceedings for March 12, 1892, has in. no wise abated, and during the 
past year quite a number were killed on the island. 
No less than fourteen opossums have been taken at Watchogue and 
the neighboring hamlets within a short period. It was thought by the 
residents, that they were possibly imported on the railroad, as the com- 
pletion of the bridge and the appearance of the opossums were so nearly 
coincident. However, the causes given in the Proceedings referred to 
above, are probably the correct ones. In the winter of 1891-92, a dog 
owned by Mr. George Marsac, who lives at Watchogue, caught two 
opossums, one of them under the piazza floor. This past winter, Mr. 
Marsac and Mr. John De Bau found four opossums in a hollow gum 
. tree; Mr. George Decker and Mr. Marsac caught two others, and Mr. 
Orville Merrill, one; Mr. George Merrill, one; Mr. Smith one in his 
. eellar, and Mr. Van Pelt, who lives near Bull's Head, found one in his 
— house. Mr. Drake, of Old Place, heard a disturbance in his 
