Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
*V^' »i^ ^•'^.TSA '^^:-'>'n'*-''^»^'^* THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY 580.G LP 1894-1*B9T [Price PROCEEDINGS OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. From November 1896 to June 1897. LONDON': PRINTED FOR THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, BURLINGTON HOUSE, PICCADILLY, W., BY TATLOE AND FRANCIS, RED LION COUET, FLEET STREET. LP PROCEEDINGS OF THE LINNEiN SOCIETY OF LONDOX. (SESSION 1894-95.) November 1st, 1894. Mr. Charles Baeon Clabke, F.R.S., President, in. the Chair. The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. Mr. Arthur Philip Grreen and Mr. Frederick Lewis were elected Fellows. At the request of the Eoyal Society of New South "Wales, the President announced the offer by that Society of a series of prizes for the best communications on cerbaiu specified subjects. Messrs. H. and J. Groves exhibited an undescribed Chara from Westmeath, and made remarks upon its peculiar mode of growth. There were exhibited for Mr. J. Gr. Otto Tepper some photo- graphs of a remarkable Fungus from South Australia, Lacco- cephalum basilapidoides, MacAlp. & Tepp., which explained the formation of the peculiar stone-like nodules occasionally found when clearing scrub-land. These were found to be due to the agglutinating nature of the mycelium of this fungus, the grains being permanently cemented by lime and ferruginous oxides. The Eev. Gr. Henslow made some remarks on a peculiar mode of propagation of Oxalis cernua observed in Malta, and exhibited some views taken during his sojourn there. Mr. Miller Christy exhibited a long piece of leaden pipe which had been gnawed through its entire length by Eats, in a manner LINN. SOC. PEOCEEDINOS.— SESSION 1894-95. h 529129 — 2 PEOCEEDLNGS OF THE which showed that the object was not, as generally supposed, to get access to water. Mr. H. M. Bernard exhibited some photographs of Corals taken with the " Kodak " camera. A series of that remarkable Beetle Goliathus gtganteus from "West Africa was shown by Dr. E. A. Heath ; and Mr. E. M. Holmes exhibited some plants from Japan. The following papers were read : 1. " On Mediterranean and Xew Zealand Eetiporce, and a Fenestrate Bryozoan." By A. W. Waters, F.L.S. 2. " Theletiemeae et Graphideae novse." By Dr. J. Miiller, of Aargau, F.M.L.S. November loth, 1S94. Mr. Chaeles Baeon Claeke, E.E.S., President, in the Chair. The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. Mr. J. E. S. Moore exhibited preparations illustrative of his investigations concerning the origin and nature of the achromatic spindle in the spermatocytes of Elasmobranchs. His results were approximately in agreement with those arrived at by Hermann in regard to the corresponding elements in Amphibia, and more in accord with those of I^hikawa relating to the division of jS'octiluca. As to the spindle-fibres themselves, it is supposed that during the diastral stage of the division they were the optical expression of thickenings in the wall of a membranous cylinder stretched out between the chromosomes. The Bev. G-. Henslow exhibited some curious iron implements of somewhat varied pattern used in Egypt for cutting oif the top of the Alexandrine Fig, Ficus Sgcamorus, Linn., the operatioa being necessary to render it edible by getting rid of the parasitic insect, Sycophaga crassipes, by which it is always infested. The practice was said to be very aacieut, being described by Theo- phrastus, and alluded to by the same word Kri^wv in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament (Amos, vii. 14) in translating from the Hebrew. Mr. H. jS". Bidley showed some drawings of the green larva of a Sphinx Moth mimicking a green tree-snake, Trimeresurus WagJeri, as well as a cluster of Caterpillars mimicking a fruit, all of which were found in Singapore. He also showed a drawing, from life, of the Tannin-producing Gambir-plant, Uncaria Gamhir\ in flower. —— LIKNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDOU". 3 Mr. Thomas Christy exhibited some germinating seeds of Pepper, showing the testa being carried up by the cotyledons. The following papers were read : 1. "A Revision of the British Copepoda belonging to the Grenera Bradya and Ectinosoma." By Thomas Scott, P.L.S., and Andrew Scott. 2. "Eecent Observations on the Plant yielding Bhang, Can- nabis sativa, Linn." By Dr. David Prain, F.L.S. December 6th, 1894. Mr. CflAELEs Baeon Claeke, P.E.S., President, in the Chair. The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. Mr. Walter Tothill was elected a Pellow. Mr. E. M. Holmes exhibited and made some remarks upon a small collection of Japanese Marine Algae, some of which were of considerable rarity in European collections. Prof. D. Campbell brought forward some illustrations of the relations of vascular Cryptogams as deduced from their deve- lopment. His remarks were followed by a discussion in which Prof Bower, Dr. D. H. Scott, Mr. Carruthers, and Prof. Marshall Ward took part. The following paper was read : " A New Eevisiou of the Dipterocarpeae." By Sir Dietrich Brandis, P.E.S., P.L.S. December 20th, 1894. Mr. Chaeles Baeon Claeke, E.E.S., President, in the Chair. The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. Mr. Peter Ewing was elected a Fellow. Mr. W. Betting Hemsley exhibited a series of specimens and figures illustrating the parasitism of Loranthus aphyllus, Miers, and other plants, from the Herbarium, Kew. Mr. J. E. Harting exhibited a specimen of a small Siberian Warbler, Phylloscopus superciliosus, which had been obtained near Beverley, Yorkshire, in October last, and made some remarks upon its haunts, habits, and migration, and upon the previous instances which had been noted of its accidental occur- rence in the British Islands. 12 ——, PEOCEEDIirGS OF THE The following papers were read : 1. " On the Spinning-Glands of Fhri/nus." By Henry Meyners Bernard, F.L.S. 2. " Contributions to the Knowledge of Monocotyledonous Saprophytes." By Percy Groom, F.L.S. January 17th, 1895. Mr. Chaeles BAEOif Claeke, F.E.S., President, in the Chair. The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. Mr. Stephen Trovte Dunn, Mr. James Peter Hill, Mr. "Robert Okell, Mr. William Burne Stonham, Surg.-Capt. John Henry TuU Walsh, and Mr. James Wilshire were elected Fellows. Mr. George Murray exhibited lantern-slides representing a new part of PacJiytheca, consisting of a cup-shaped receptacle in which Pacliytheca was fouud by Mr. John Storrie of CardiflF, The walls of the cup are composed of radiating chambers like those of AcetabuJaria, and in the centre there are traces of an axile structure. Mr. Murray considered that this discovery only made the interpretation of the nature oiPachytheca more difficult than ever. Mr. Arthur Lister exhibited and made remarks upon a Land-Bail, Crex pratensis, which had been found a few days pre- viously near Axminster in Devonshire, where it had been killed by coming in contact with telegraph-wires. The occurrence in midwinter of a bird which is a summer visitor to this country seemed to him to be worth notice. Mr. J. E. Harting exhibited specimens of northern sea-birds which had been driven upon the East Coast of England during recent gales : amongst -others the Little Auk, Mergulus alle, of which great numbers had come ashore dead or in an exhausted condition ; the Little Gull, Larusminutus, obtained at Whitstable on January 5th; and an example of Briinnich's Guillemot, Uria Brunnichii, Sabine (Trans. Linn. Soc. xii. p. 538), a species which, though abundant in Greenland, North-east Iceland, and Spitzbergen, is of such extremely rare occurrence on our coasts, that not more than two or three authenticated instances of its appearance here have been recorded. The specimen exhibited liad been forwarded by Mr. W. J. Clarke of Scarborough, near which seaport it had been shot on the 7th December last. The following papers were read : 1. " On some Variations in the Number of Stamens and Carpels." By I. H. Burkill, F.L.S. — LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON". 5 2. " Variation in the Floral Symmetry of Potentilla Tormen- tilla, Necker.—Part I. The Modes of Variation." By A. G. Tansley, F.L.S., and Miss E. Dale. February 7th, 1895. Mr. Charles Babon Clarke, F.E.S., President, in the Chair. The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. Mr. George Henry Adcock and Mr. John Eedman Bovell were elected Fellows. The vacancies on the list of Foreign Members caused by the deaths of Monsieur Pierre Duchartre, Dr. Nathan Pringsheim, and Dr. Eduard von Kegel, having been announced by the President, the following nominations were made on the recom- mendation of the Council, and the Certificates ordered to be suspended : Dr. C. F. Otto Nordstedt, Keeper of the Botanical Museum at the University of Lund, Editor of the ' Botaniska Notiser,' <tc. Dr. Michael Woronin of St. Petersburg, author of ' Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte des Ascoholus pulcherrimus, Cramer, und einiger Pezizen,' &c. Dr. Rudolph A, Philippi of Santiago, author of ' Reise darch die Wiiste Atacama im Sommer 1853-1854,' &c. Mr. Thomas Christy exhibited a dried specimen of Aplopappus Llaretcd, and samples of the so-called Gum Kino, Pterocarpns erinaceus, of which some account was given by Mr. E. M. Holmes. Mr. George Murray exhibited a number of lantern-slides of floating Algae, of which be gave brief descriptions, referring to the localities in which they had been found and the literature relating to them. By permission of the Director of the Eoyal Gardens, Kew, Mr. W. B. Hemsley exhibited dried specimens of a number of new plants from Eastern Asia. Conspicuous among these was a new genus of the ScitaminecB from the mountains of Northern Siam, characterized by having minute unisexual flowers destitute of staminodia, and a one-celled ovary with parietal placentation, and two filiform stylodia ; a remarkably broad-leaved iyA-macAea from the same region ; new species of Hypericum, Ventilago, Mesona, and Helicia from Formosa; and a new genus of Cyrtandreae.