Meetings.] 356 [March 16, 



General Meeting, March 16, 1887. 



The President, Mr. S. H. Scudder, in the chair. 



Prof. Wm. M. Davis read a paper on geographic classification in 

 ■which he explained the difficulties of the present method of de- 

 scribing the form of the surface of a country, and the advantages 

 of a classification of geographic forms based on their develop- 

 ment. 



Prof. A. Hyatt compared this system of classification to one long 

 ago proposed by him for animals. 



Prof. F. W. Putnam showed a collection of perforated stones 

 from California, including some unfinished, showing how they were 

 made. Some were made from water-worn pebbles and others 

 from rough pieces shaped by pounding the surface with other 

 stones. The perforations were made by picking with a pointed 

 stone and were afterward enlarged and smoothed by rubbing. Four 

 of these stones were shown with the handles still attached. The 

 handles are sticks passing through the perforation and held in place 

 by asphaltum. These mounted specimens were found in a cave 

 in California, and are the only ones ever found in this country 

 attached to handles and give conclusive evidence that at least some 

 of the California stones were club-heads. Similar perforated stones 

 have been found in other countries and were used for various pur- 

 poses. It is known that in southern Africa they are used as 

 weights to digging-sticks. 



Dr. S. Kneeland read an account by Le Matayer de Guichain- 

 ville of the caterpillars so destructive to the foliage on the trees 

 in the squares of New York. 



Section of Entomology, March 23, 1887. 



The President, Mr. S. H. Scudder, in the chair. 



Mr. Scudder called attention to an interesting paper printed in 

 the Geological Magazine, in which Dr. Woodward describes several 

 new forms of British carboniferous cockroaches. One of them is 

 of particular interest as closely allied to Blattina insignis of Gol- 



