1068 The American Naturalist. [December, 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
Boston Society of Natural History, November 7.—The fol- 
lowing paper was read: Professor George Lincoln Goodale, An 
account of the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass models of Flowers 
in the Harvard University Museum. With illustrations. 
November 21st.—The following paper was read: - Dr. George A. 
Dorsey, “ The Peruvians, prehistoric and modern.”  Stereopticon 
views were shown. 
SAMUEL HENSHAW, Secretary. 
New York Academy of Sciences, Biological Section, 
October 22.—The following papers were read: Professor N. L. Brit- 
ton, and T. H. Kearney, Jr., “On a Collection of Texano-Mexican 
Plants,’ —new species and altitudinal notes; Professor E. B. Wilson, 
“ The fertilization and polarity of the egg in Toxopneustes lividus.” 
The study of extensive series of sections fixed by sublimate-acetic and 
stained by Heidenhain’s iron-hematoxylin fails to give any evidence 
of a “quadrille of the centrosomes.” The archoplasm is wholly de- 
rived from, or'formed under the influence of a substance derived from 
the spermatozoon and situated not at the apex but in or near the mid- 
dle-piece. Regarding polarity, the continuous observation of a large 
series of living eggs shows that the definitive egg-axis has no con- 
stant relation to that passing through the excentric egg-nucleus but 
may form any angle with it. The first cleavage passes approximately 
through the point of entrance of the spermatozoon as described by 
Roux in the frog. Dr. Bashford Dean, “ On the breeding habits of 
Lepidosteus from observations at Black Lake, N. Y., May, 1894;” 
Professor H. F. Osborn, “ On the Proceedings of the Biological Section 
of the British Association.” 
November 12.—N. L. Britton, “ Problems in Plant Evolution,” not- 
ing from the side of Paleobotany the centralized position of Algse and 
the probable affinities of pteridophytes and bryophytes. G. N. Cal- 
kins, “ A little known phenomenon in the life history of Stentor coeru- 
leus.” ‘The free swimming Lieberkuhnina of Bütschli was shown to 
be (as Claparéde and Lachman had earlier believed) an embryo 
Stentor. H. G. Dyar, * A classification of Lepidopterous larvæ ac- 
. cording to setiferous tubules,” giving data for the establishment of six 
