Burbank.] 214 [January 5, 



January 5, 1876. 



The President, Mr. T. T. Bouve, in the chair. Thirty- 

 eight persons present. 



The following gentlemen were elected Resident Members : 

 Messrs. A. Graham Bell, Lucien Carr, Charles B. Cory, Sam- 

 uel D. Crafts, John A. Jeffries, William A. Jeffries, and Clif- 

 ford R. Weld. 



Prof. W. H. Niles read a paper entitled " The Evidences 

 of a widely spread Geological Force, exhibited by certain 

 Rock movements." 



Mr. L. S. Burbank exhibited specimens of the wood, 

 leaves, and fruit of two species of native forest trees, the 

 River Birch (Betula nigra) and the Hackberry or Nettle 

 Tree (Celtis occidentalis). 



These trees are both very rare in New England. The River 

 Birch, which is well described in Emerson's Report on the Trees and 

 Shrubs of Massachusetts, is not known to occur anywhere in New 

 England, except on the banks of the Merrimack and some of its 

 smaller branches. The only locality mentioned by Emerson is on 

 and near the Spicket River, in Methuen (now the City of Lawrence), 

 a few miles below Lowell. It is found, however, in great abundance 

 in Lowell, and along the banks of the Merrimack for several miles 

 above and below that city. It attracts attention at once by the 

 peculiarity of the bark, which is of a reddish brown color, and has a 

 ragged appearance, due to the fact that the outer layers separate and 

 hang from the branches and smaller trunks in loose, curled masses. 

 The bark on the larger trunks is dark colored and very rough, hav- 

 ing little resemblance to that of the branches, or of any other spe- 

 cies of birch. The trees of this species appear to grow naturally 

 only on the immediate banks of the streams, where they are gener- 

 ally much injured by floating ice and driftwood, and seldom show the 

 vigorous growth and graceful forms that characterize the species in 

 specially favorable locations. 



A group of these trees that stood on the bank of the Merrimack 

 just above the mills of the Lawrence Corporation in Lowell, con- 



