"Among the most interesting plants of the collection are fine species of _Bauhinia_ and _Hymenæa_. Of these, the first is represented by a large number of leaves, some of which are six or seven inches in diameter. They are deeply bilobed, and have the peculiar and characteristic form and nervation of the leaves of this genus. _Bauhinia_ is a leguminous genus allied to _Cercis_, and now inhabits tropical and warm temperate climates in both hemispheres. Only one species occurs in the United States, _Bauhinia lunarioides_, Gray, found by Dr. Bigelow on the Rio Grande. "_Hymenæa_ is another of the leguminosæ, and inhabits tropical America. A species of this genus has been found in the Upper Cretaceous of France, but quite different from the one before us, in which the leaves are much larger, and the leaflets are united in a common petiole, which is winged; this is a modification not found in the living species, and one which brings it nearer to _Bauhinia_. "But the most surprising discovery yet made is that of a number of quite large helianthoid flowers, which I have called _Palæanthus_. These are three to four inches in diameter, and exhibit a scaly involucre, enclosing what much resembles a fleshy receptacle with achenia. From the border of this radiate a number of ray florets, one to two inches in length, which are persistent and must have been scarious, like those of _Helichrysum_. Though these flowers so much resemble those of the compositæ, we are not yet warranted in asserting that such is certainly their character. In the Jurassic rocks of Europe and India some flowers not very unlike these have been found, which have been named _Williamsonia_, and referred to cycads by Carruthers. A similar fossil has been found in the Cretaceous rocks of Greenland, and named by Heer _Williamsonia cretacea_, but he questions the reference of the genus to the Cycadeæ, and agrees with Nathorst in considering all the species of _Williamsonia_ as parasitic flowers, allied to _Brugmansia_ or _Rafflesia_. The Marquis of Saporta regards them as monocotyledons, similar to _Pandanus_. More specimens of the flowers now exhibited will perhaps prove--what we can now only regard as probable--that the Compositæ, like the _Leguminosæ_, _Magnoliaceæ_, _Celastraceæ_, and other highly organised plants, formed part of the Cretaceous flora. No composite flowers have before been found in the fossil state, and, as these are among the most complex and specialised forms of florescence, it has been supposed that they belonged only to the recent epoch, where they were the result of a long series of formative changes."