1881 .] 
153 
[Burgess. 
eastward to the Atlantic coast. The specimen exhibited was of jiar- 
ticular interest as it was found on a bed of sand lying under seven 
feet of peat, while digging a trench in Wakefield. The specimen 
had recently been received at the Peabody Museum in Cambridge 
from Mr. David Dodge, and is the first stone implement known 
to have been found under peat in New England. 
Dr. M. E. Wadsworth said that the ornament in question was 
probably made from a natural rock, and certainly was decom- 
posed feldspar. In some resjiects the specimen was very peculiar. 
Mr. Lucien Carr read a chapter from a forthcoming work on 
the raising of corn by the Indians, embodying much historic and 
other evidence of their agricultural skill, which, it is strange to 
say, seems popularly ignored. 
General Meeting. February 16 , 1881 . 
The President, Mr. S. H. Scudder, ill the chair. Thirty-two 
persons present. 
Dr. C. S. Minot gave a resume of the latest researches on the 
larval forms of the mollusks, annelids, and vertebrates, pointing 
out what seems to be a typical common larva, representing the 
starting point of all bilateral animals. 
The Society then listened to remarks by the President upon 
the few carboniferous insects thus far found in Great Britain. 
The following paper wms read : 
NOTE ON THE AORTA IN LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS. 
BY EDWARD BURGESS. 
In my paper 1 on the anatomy of the Milk-weed Butterfly 
(Danais Archippus Fabr.) I have described the very remarkable 
course pursued by the aorta of this insect and the presence of an 
“aortal chamber,” peculiarities heretofore unnoticed by anato- 
1 Annivers. Memoirs Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 16 pp. 2 pi. 1881. 
