rae JOURNAL 
NIL WEY OP AURAL USTOR 
PROCHEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
TuEsDAY EVENING, July 3, 1883. 
No meeting. Donations were received during the preceding month as 
follows: From Charles Dury, 5 species of shells from Italy, viz.: Helix 
aspera, H. vermiculata, Cyclostoma elegans, Clausilia —— sp? Arca 
sp? from Rudolph F. Balke, 3 specimens of Reptiles; 1 Scorpion; 1 Double 
Peach in Alcohol; from Signal Service Bureau, Monthly Weather Review for 
April, 1883; 3 Volumes of Report of Signal Service Officer, 1880, 1881 and 
1883; Memoir on the Use of Homing Pigeons; from the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, Vols. 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, Miscellaneous Collections; from the Bureau 
of Education, Washington, Circular of Information, No. 1, 1883; from the 
Department of the Interior, First and Second Reports of the U.S. Geological 
Survey; from Boston Zoological Society, Quarterly Journal, July, 1883. 
TUESDAY EVENING, August 7, 1883. 
President Hunt in the chair. Eleven members present. 
Mr. Joseph F. James read a paper on the ‘‘ Position of the Composite in 
the Natural System.’’ After noticing the fact that the Polypetale have been 
generally recognized as the most highly organized of all plants, he went on to 
compare the Gamopetalz with the Polypetale. In the family Composite we 
find the most highly organized type of plants. ‘The family is the most dom- 
inant one, and the largest in the world. The flowers, being crowded into a 
head on a common receptacle, are more conspicuous, and more easily visited 
by insects than if each was separate. The five petals having become united 
to form the five-lobed tubular corolla, has effected a saving of material for the 
plant. The calyx of ordinary flowers being reduced to pappus is another 
saving. The anthers are united intoa tube, into which the pollen is shed, and 
thus a waste is prevented. The pistil, maturing after the anthers, is pro- 
truded from between them, and only expands when the pollen can not be of 
use in fertilizing it, thus being assured of cross-fertilization and the ability to 
produce better seed. The abortive ray flowers are of use in making the 
