lect it by brushing the hands over it. 
1883.] Proceedings of Scientific Societies, 1321 
ben and Wyoming counties, N. Y., established the belief that 
these sands belonged to the Lower Chemung. The oil in Penn- 
sylvania never reaches the reservoirs from above, but principally 
from below, though some of the material was formed from plants 
contained in the beds themselves. Mr. B. S. Lyman, late chief 
of the Geol. Survey of Japan, stated his belief that oil always 
originates in the sand where it is found. 
une, 21.—Professor Cope gave an account of the fossil fishes 
from the Idaho and Oregon lake basins. Twenty-two species 
were now known from Idaho, all distinct from those found in the 
Oregon basin, and distinct from existing species, though, with two 
exceptions, they belonged to existing genera. Among these 
shes was a member of the Cobitida, a family not now repre- 
sented in North America. The name of Idaho lake and Idaho 
deposits was proposed for the Pliocene beds of Idaho. No re- 
mains of mammals and very few of any vertebrates but fishes 
were found in the Idaho beds, though the Oregon deposits are 
full of bird remains. The Rev. Dr. McCook exhibited a nest of 
Tarentula arenicola. : 
Aug. 31.—Mr. Meehan, recently returned from a trip to Alaska, 
Stated his conclusion, from the relations of ancient forests of 
Abies sitkensis, and other evergreens, to the drift and superim- 
posed younger forests, that the destruction of the former, the 
covering of their site with hundreds of feet of drift, and the sub- 
sequent exposure of their remains, were all the work of a few 
hundred years. ; 
Sept. 6.—Mr. Meehan spoke of the abundant exudation from 
the cones of Adies sitkensis, and expressed his belief that honey- 
dew was in most cases an exudation from the flowers and leaves 
of plants. Sachs had suggested that its function in the arbor 
vitæ, was to catch the wind-blown pollen, but this could not be 
the case in plants of other classes that also produce it. The 
Rev. Dr. McCook remarked that the honey-dew of aphides was 
an excretion, as the drop always appeared at the anus. That p7 
source of the honey. was vegetable, he had proved in the case o 
the honey-ant of Colorado, which collects the liquid from the 
alls of the scrub oak. | 
? Sept. 13.— Mr. Meehan called attention to the flowers of Centau- 
rea americana, a native of Texas. If the point of the united 
Stamens be touched, the pollen will overflow and the pistil rises 
above the stamen-tube. If now the pistil be touched, the entire 
floret bends to the side or makes arcircular motion, and some- 
times the motion is communicated to other florets. The motion 
is only observed when the pollen is present. 
Sept. 20.—Mr. Meehan et to the remarks of Dr. Horn, 
at one of the summer meetings, respecting a species of grass 
which yi £ t ly of sugar that the natives col- 
hich yields so abundant a supply ner Sel ppa 
