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LONDON Linnean Society, November 20.—Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R. S., Vice-President, in the chair.—Mr. A. Roope Hunt was elected a Fellow.—Mr. F. B. Forbes drew attention to specimens of pods and seeds used by the Chinese in place of soap. He stated that for ordinary detergent purposes an impure earthy soda and a lye made from ashes are employed. The leaves of Hibiscus syriacus and Ginko biloba are. occasionally used for cleansing the head. The most favourite substance, however, is the fruit of certain Leguminosoe (Fei-tsao-tow). The late Daniel Hanbury figures these seeds as a species of Dialium. Dr. Porter Smith says they are the product of the Acacia concinna (Mimosa saponaria, Roxb.). Dr. Breitschneider asserts, on the contrary, that they belong to Gymnodadus chinensis, originally described by Baillon from pods only. Specimens at Kew lately figured in the “Icones Plantarum,” are young leaves, fruit, and flowers from Foochow; those now exhibited (by Mr. Forbes) are, how ever, much finer examples from Ningpo and Warm. The pods are roasted and kneaded into small balls used for washing clothes, and the head in bathing, but, on account of their un pleasant smell, they are prohibited in the public baths. The pods of Gleditschia sinensts, Lamk. (Tsao-chio) are used for the same purposes as Gymfiocladus, those shown at the meeting being from Pekin and Shanghai district. One appears to answer to Dr. Hance's new G. zylocarpa. Bentham refers a South China tree to G. sinensis. Lamarck founded his species on a tree growing in the Jardin des Plantes, raised from seeds sent by Père Incar-ville 200 years ago from Pekin. It is doubtful if the northern and southern plants are identical. The pods are broken into small bits soaked in boiling water until an oily substance is floated, when they are ready for use. Another saponaceous substance is derived from Sapindus makarosi (the S. chinensis or Kolrtuteria paniculata Lam.), specimens of which were shown from Ningpo.—Messrs. H. and J. Groves exhibited specimens of (1) Chara connivens, collected at Slapton, South Devon, the only known British station, for no trace of the plant is now to be found at Stokes Bay; (2) Chara canescens, obtained from a pool between Helston and the Lizard, West Cornwall, by Messrs. Guardia and Groves, and also at Little Sea, Studland, Dorset, by Mr. Mansell Pleydell.—Mr. Geo. Murray showed dried and moistened examples of an Algae, Glæocapsa, found by Mr. Pryer in birds'-nest caves in North Borneo.—Mr. J. G. Baker read the following letter from Mr. W. Brockhurst, of Didsbury, dated November 17, 1884:—“On April 2 I had the pleasure of exhibiting to the Society a number of prepared specimens of the daffodil, which appeared to prove that double daffodil flowers might produce seeds, and I advanced some arguments, based upon the observations I had made, to show that they were spread over wide areas in a wild state of seeding. The specimens showed the seed-vessels filled with ovules, but this did not fully prove that ripe seeds capable of germination would be matured. I therefore carefully observed a number of flowers of double daffodils (Narcissus telamoneus-plenus), and marked them as they went out of bloom, to prevent any mis takes. One of these produced a capsule containing nine shining black seeds, which were gathered on June 24, and at once sowed in a pot, and covered with a sheet of glass. Of these seeds four have already germinated, and show grass-like growths an inch above the soil. This therefore completes the proof.—Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer pointed out and made remarks on some sterile runners of Mentha piperita, and the remains of flowers of Epilobium hirsutum, both taken from a wreath found by Prof. Maspero in a tomb near Thebes, and supposed to be of the 20th or 26th dynasty; Mr. Dyer also exhibited fresh flowers of Ipomea purpureo-ccerulea.—Mr. Thos. Christy exhibited two specimens of Lycaste Skinner, Lindl., one with two flowers on one stem, the other with an aborted lip adherent for the greater part of its length to the column. He also drew attention to samples of the tea (probably a species of Ilex) used largely in Bogota, but which is said to be deficient in flavour.—Mr. E. C. Stanford thereafter showed some of the products from seaweed, viz.:—Algin, the insoluble form of which (alginic acid) can be made into shirt-studs resembling horn, &c.; the soluble algin (or alginate of soda), which diminishes the brittleness of shellac, besides other uses.—A paper was read by Mr. E. M. Holmes on Cinchona Ledgeriana as a species. The author expressed the opinion that under the name of C. Ledgeriana, a number of varie ties or forms, and probably some hybrids of Cinchona Calisaya, are now under cultivation in the British colonies. He believed that, if more attention were paid to the characters afforded by the bark of trees, taken in conjunction with the other botanical characters of flower and fruit, these varieties and hybrids would be more easily defined and recognised. He considers that the plant published under the name of C. Ledgeriana by Dr. Trimen was probably referable to Weddell's Cinchona Calisaya, var. pallida, as a horticultural form, for which the author proposed the name “Trimeniana.”—A paper was read, notes on the habits of some Australian Hymenopterous Aculeata, by H. L. Roth. He states that the wasps of the genus Pelopæus (P. lætus) build their nests on the walls, ceilings, legs of chairs, under the table, in cupboards, vases, between pictures and the walls, on curtains, in all sorts of crevices in the house, and on the roof. No place is safe from their intrusion. When a cell is completed, the wasp goes in search of spiders, and, seizing these, packs their half-dead bodies in the cell, lays an egg, and closes the cell-top; thereafter rows of cells are added to the primary one and dealt with in the same fashion, generally finishing with a streaked coating of mud, thus to deceive as to the real contents beneath. These wasps are infested with Dipterous parasites. Of the Australian ants, Formica rufinigro is numerous, bold, and de structive. They destroy the web of certain caterpillars and wriggle them out, when they fall a prey to a host of attendant warrior ants.—Mr. E. T, Druery read a paper on a singular mode of reproduction in Athyriwm filix-fcemina, var. clarissima. In a previous paper the author had shown that prothallia-bearing antheridia and archegonia were developed on the apex of pear-shaped bodies with the larger end downwards, in the place usually occupied by sori. In the present paper he brought for ward evidence to show that these pear-shaped bodies were not developed from sporangia, but from a previous formation of thread-like bodies, a few of which became thickened, and deve loped into the pear-shaped bodies previously mentioned, the others remaining starved and undeveloped.
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Societies and Academies . Nature 31, 118–120 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/031118b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/031118b0