Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 95 
fish figures would makeit. Ina paper on “ Blind Fishes and National 
Selection,” D. S. Jordan replied to the statement in some religious 
paper that “evolution would find it exceedingly difficult to account 
for these forms.” In “The Origin of Genera,” the same gentleman 
gave an outline of the view of Professor Cope on this subject and 
mentioned some of the difficulties which were presented by fishes, 
at the same time indicating the great aid which systematic zoology 
had received from the same theory. 
“The Origin of Arthropods,” by J. S. Kingsley, was a résumé 
of recent views on the origin and lines of descent of the various 
groups of arthropods. © O. P. Hay, in his “Observations on 
Amphiama,” gave some interesting facts regarding this batrachian. 
In Arkansas he found an Amphiama incubating her eggs under- 
neath a log. She was coiled around her eggs and was very sluggish 
at first. Later she was quite cross and irritable, uttering a shrill 
sound like a whistle. The eggs, of which there are about a hun- 
dred and fifty, form long stings, the gelatinous envelope shrinking 
between the eggs so that the whole sting resembles a sting of 
beads. The young which were in an advanced stage of develop- 
ment were about one and three fourths inches in length with well- 
developed gills, each bronchia consisting of a main stalk with three 
feathered branches. The eggs themselves were about the size of a pea. 
. W. Hargitt had two papers: “Curiosities of egg formation,” 
and “ Notes on Scaphiopus holbrookii.” The first detailed some cases of 
teratology in the eggs of hens and turkeys; the second an appearance 
of the spade-foot toad at Marthas Vineyard during a heavy rain 
during the past summer. A. W. Butler made some “Suggestions 
concerning a law for the Protection of Birds,” stating that the 
present law would not stand, and that it is impossible tọ secure 
convictions under it. A committee was appointed to urge the 
passage of a suitable law embodying the provisions of the New 
York and Massachusetts statutes upon the next legislature. 
Maurice Thompson’s “Secondary functions of the Hyoid corma in 
icus and Colaptes” showed a lack of morphological and 
physiological knowledge. 
‘The address of the president, John M. Coulter, was delivered 
Wednesday evening, and with “Evolution in the Vegetable King- 
dom,” tracing the origin of the sexual element in plants, and the 
radual increase of the asexual over the sexual generations. 
Besides this there were six papers read on botanical subjects. Miss 
Lillie J. Martin spoke of the “ Value of Organized Work in Plant 
Chemistry ;” J. N. Rose mentioned the “Characters in Umbelliferee,” 
which he found of most value in the classification of this group 
of plants while working them up in connection with Professor 
Coulter for the Synoptical Flora. The most valuable characters 
were found in the fruit. Stanley Coulter spoke of the “ Histology 
of the leaf of Taxodium distidium.” He found the cell walls 
difficult to study on account of their thinness and the large cell 
