Societies and Academies

Abstract

LONDON. Linnean Society, January 17.—Mr. W. Carruthers, F.R.S., President, in the choir.—On behalf of M. Buysman, of Middleburg, Mr. B. D. Jackson exhibited a series of careful dissections of Nymphæa carulea collected by Dr. Schweinfurth in Egypt.— Mr. D. Morris exhibited specimens of drift fruit from Jamaica, where he had collected no fewer than thirty-five different kinds brought by the Gulf Stream from the mouths of the Orinoco and Amazon. Although the species exhibited had net been determined with ceitainty, it was believed to be probably Humiria balsamifera, Aud., the flower of which is figured by Eichler (“Flora Brasiliensis,” vol. xii. part 2, p. 440, pl. xcii. fig. 1), but the fruit undescribed. It was commonly known in French Guiana as bois rouge, and from it was obtained a gum used medicinally and burnt as intense. An interesting discussion followeel, in which Mr. J. G. Baker, Mr. Rolfe, and Mr. Breese took part.— Mr. T. Christy exhibited a material felted from Manilla hemp., and waterproofed, very strong and light, and particularly useful for surgical bandages, for which purpose it was highly recommended by army surgeons.—Mr. F. Crisp exhibited some specimens of agate so curiously marl ed as to lead to the erronecus suppositien that they inclosed fossil insects and Crustacea.—A paper was then read, by Mr. J. G. Tepper, on the natural history of the Kangaroo Island grass-tree, Xantharrhæa Tdteana. This tree grows abundantly in Kangaroo Islend, South Australia, in poor gravelly and sandy soil, intermixed with ferruginous concretions, and attains a height of from 6 to 14 feet, with a diameter of 6 to 18 inches, and a floral spike of from 10 to 19 feet. It is thus a mcst censpicuous plant, and lends a peculiarly weird aspect to the country it cecupies. Its rate of growth is described as very slow, old settlers having remarked but little change in individual trees after thirty years' observation. The mcst remarkable feature in the structure of the stem is the formation of a dense ligneous central core immediately above and connected with the roots, exhibiting numerous annular zones traversed by transverse (medullary) fibres. The flowers are borne in a dense spike upon a smooth peduncle. Individually they are inconspicuous, of a whitish colour, and develop a strong odour and abundant nectar during the warmer part of the day, when they are visited and fertilized by Hymenopterous insects, the most remarkable being a large metallic-green carpenter-bee (Xylocapa), which tunnels out cells in the dead flower stalks. An interesting discussion followed upon the botanical position of the grass-trees, and the antiquity of the type, in which the President, Mr. A. W. Bennett, Mr. I. G. Baker, Mr. Morris, and Mr. Rolfe took part.