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THE AMEBIC AN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIX 



orbicular, instead of narrowly ovate, and twice as long as broad. 

 He remarks in this paper: 

 When variations occur it is difficult for some to believe that cross-fer- 



accident of climate or soil had not [been] an agency in the change. 



This type of difficulty is still formidable in the minds of some. 

 In the case he describes such explanations are excluded as in- 

 applicable. 



"On Parallelism in Distinct Lines of Evolution." Proc. Phila. 

 Acad., 1886, 294-95, 1887. 



Meehan refers 4 to a paper given by him at the Troy meeting 

 of the American Association (1870), "On the Introduction of 

 Species by Sudden Leaps." But there is no such paper in the 

 report, although he gave three other papers dealing respectively 

 with fasciation. pollination by insects, and the influence of nu- 

 trition on sex. His last paper, published posthumously, in Proc. 

 Phila. Acad,, 54, 33-36 (1902), is in two parts, dealing with 

 "The Bartram Oak, in Connection with Variation and Hybrid- 

 ism" and "Observations on the Flowering of Lolxtia cardinalis 

 and Lobelia syphilitica." He may well be described with justice 

 and accuracy as an anticipator of the mutation theory, not on 

 theoretical grounds but on the basis of his own keen observations. 



Meehan also contributed to the earlier volumes of the Ameri- 

 can Naturalist, the Botanical Gazette, Torrey Bulletin and 

 other journals during his active life. One of these 1 character- 



R. Ruggles Gates 



