A miscellaneous collection of plants, consisting of from two hundred to three hundred species, from the Pacific slope, by H. G. Bloomer; specimens of a _Yucca_, and of _Larrea Mexicana_, from Kern river, by J. E. Clayton. Mr. Bolander presented the following paper: Description of a New Species of Melica. BY H. N. BOLANDER. MELICA L. _M. stricta_ Bolander. Spikelets very large, secund, horizontal, four to six-flowered; flowers stipitate, upper ones imperfect and abortive, slightly tinged with purple. Glumes equal, oblong, membranaceous, five-nerved; nerves evanescent at about three-quarters the length of the glumes; scarious margined and pointed, nearly the length (one-half inch) of the flowers. Paleæ very unequal, chartaceous; lower oblong, seven-nerved, all except the middle one evanescent at about two-thirds the length of the palea; scabrous, largely scarious margined and pointed; upper palea spathulate, bicarinate, ciliate, one-third shorter than the lower. Ovary obovate, contracted near the truncated apex, sessile, smooth; styles terminal, divergent; stigmas plumose; pilis fasciculate, minutely serrate; squammulæ very small, connate, entire; stamens three; caryopsis? Root perennial; culms upright, terate, striate, one and one-half feet high, very brittle; sheaths striate, scabrous; ligula exserted, lacerated; leaves narrow, one-sixteenth to two-sixteenths of an inch wide, acuminate, outside and margins scabrous, (four to seven inches long) striately nerved, upright, nearly appressed. Raceme upright, rather simple; branchlets smooth, appressed, few-flowered; pedicels pubescent at the angle. Collected by Mr. George W. Dunn, at Silver City, Nevada Territory. REGULAR MEETING, FEBRUARY 2D, 1863. President in the Chair. Present, fourteen members. Prof. P. P. Carpenter, of Manchester, England, was elected a Corresponding Member. Donations to the Cabinet were received as follows: Three jars of reptiles and fishes, collected by Mr. J. Xantus, in Lower California, and mostly near Cape St. Lucas, were presented by Mr. Samuel Hubbard. Donations to the Library: Volumes 1-27 of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, by H. G. Bloomer. Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, for October, November, and December, 1862, from the Society. Descriptions of shells collected in the Rocky Mountains in 1860 by Dr. J. G. Cooper, by T. Bland and J. G. Cooper. The Publishing Committee laid volume two of the Proceedings of the Academy, for the years 1858-62, upon the table: it was ordered by the Academy that one hundred copies be sold to the members at one dollar per copy, and that fifty copies be presented to the Smithsonian Institution for foreign distribution. Professor Whitney read the following communication: