572 General Notes. 
the black mangrove were largely composed of a peculiar tissue 
formed of large air cells, and that their function is the aeration of 
the plant. 3 
Prof. Rothrock spoke of mimicry in plants, and gave as examples 
the alga-like outgrowth from the spores of mosses, the external 
resemblances of Zygadenus,and Swertia,and between Nepeta glechoma, 
Lamium amplexicaule. 
Dr. Dolley reported-the occurrence of a large parasitic Ascaris in 
Carcharias ceruleus (the sand shark). 
February 21, 1888.—Dr. Leidy described specimens of a small 
crustacean (Cirolana) found swarming in the bodies of edible crabs. 
February 28, 1888.—Prof. H. C. Lewis exhibited a fragment of 
a meteorite containing diamonds. 
Dr. Sharp described specimens of jelly-fish found in a fresh-water 
pond at Nantucket. ; : 
March 6, 1888.—Dr. Sharp spoke of the classification of lamelli- 
branch molluses and traced them from a central type such as Arca 
He considered that the lamellibranchs had degenerated from the 
gastropods. 
March 20, 1888.—Dr. Leidy called the attention of the Academy 
to numerous specimens of a minute parasitic crustacean from the 
gills of Roccus lineatus. They live suspended on the outer surface 
of the red gills of the bass. The species is the Ergasilus labricis 
of Kroyer, but is not mentioned in Rathbun’s published list of 
parasitic Crustacea. The same fish frequently bears examples of the 
worm Echinorhynchus proteus in its intestines. 
April 3, 1888.—Prof. Heilprin called attention to a human foot- 
print in a slab of volcanic tufa from Lake Managua, Nicaragua. 
This footprint had been overlaid by a deposit of more than twenty 
feet in thickness, and the bones of the mastodon were said to have 
been found in the same deposits. The evidence to be drawn from 
the shells accompanying the footprint was not considered by the 
speaker as proving any very great antiquity. sons 
April 17, 1888.—Mr. Meehan spoke of Shortia galacifolia, a rare 
North American plant, of which several thousand examples have 
been found in the mountains of North Carolina. : 
Dr. Koenig described a specimen of eleonorite from Sevier county, 
Arkansas. It occurs in cavities of dufrenite, and is of a - 
color. The only specimens of the mineral heretofore known have 
been from the Eleonore mine, near Giessen, Germany. 
