156 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



rate, 8 per cent, are exceptional, while out of 200 cones of Abies 

 Douglasii, Dr Dickson only obtained one abnormality, namely, a 



cone with a bijugate arrangement, == ^^ = ~. Spirals belonging 



to other and rarer series occasionally occur in Fir Cones, but 

 those above mentioned are the commonest. 



The Librarian announced the following donation to the Library : 

 — Transactions and Journal of the Proceedings of the Dumfries- 

 shire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 

 1867-68; from the Society. 



April 25th, 1871. 



Professor John Young, M.D., F.G.S., President, in the chair. 



Mr James Graham, Girvan, was elected a resident member, and 

 Mr George Thomson, West Africa, a corresponding member. 



Before proceeding with the other business of the meeting, the 

 Chairman adverted to the resignation of the secretaryship by Mr 

 Eobert Gray, who had filled that office for a long period of years, 

 and remarked that in electing a successor the Society could not 

 expect to secure the services of a gentleman better qualified to 

 discharge the duties of the office than Mr Gray. He could only 

 hope that the new secretary would maintain the Society's wide- 

 spread connection which had of late years been opened up. 

 After some remarks by Mr Hutcheson, the meeting resolved to 

 appoint Mr Robert Mason as secretary, and, on the motion of 

 Professor Young, it was unanimously agreed to record in the 

 Society's minutes a cordial vote of thanks to Mr Gray, and an 

 expression of general regret that he had found it necessary to 

 discontinue his valuable services. 



SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 



The Chairman then exhibited and made some remarks on the 

 uterus of a species of Ilyrax, which had been presented to the 

 Hunterian Museum by Mr William Dale; also a species of Cuttle- 

 fish, and the lower jaw of a small Sliark — both from South 

 Australia — which had been forwarded for exhibition by Mr John 

 Kirsop, Queen's Crescent. 



