141 



Mr. Hailes thanked the members for the cordial way in which their 

 thanks had been voted to him ; he had carried out the matter to the best of 

 his ability, and hoped that the catalogue would be found useful. He had 

 been asked to call the attention of the members to a new form of lamp and 

 shade by Messrs. How, a specimen of which was placed upon the table. 

 He thought they would remember that about ten years ago he had himself 

 introduced the white porcelain shade, which had since become so popular. 

 He expected and hoped that some one would be able to improve upon it, but 

 up to the present' time no one seemed to have really done so. Now, how- 

 ever, he found that Mr. Smith, at Messrs. How and Co.'s, had improved upon 

 it, and had produced a very pretty and useful lamp ; it was smaller, and 

 therefore more portable than the original one, and the shade being closed 

 in at the top cut off the light there entirely. In reply to an enquiry as to 

 its cost, Mr. Hailes said he was unable to state it, he had no interest in the 

 manufacture, and could only refer to the makers. 



The thanks of the meeting were voted to Mr. Hailes for his com- 

 munication. 



Mr. W. H. Gilburt read a paper " On the floral development of Helianthus 

 annuus," the subject being illustrated by a number of diagrams. 



The President said that he had been paying great attention to the paper 

 which they had just heard read, and he must confess that as he did so, it 

 had occurred to his mind to complain of a deception which seemed to have 

 been practised upon him by their Secretary. When he was asked to become 

 their President, he was told that they were not a scientific society in the 

 severe sense of the term, but that they were largely made up of the 

 amateur element. All he could say now was, that if tltat paper did not 

 satisfy Mr. Ingpen, he must be very hard indeed to please. For his 

 own part he might say that having dabbled in many subjects in the 

 course of his time, amongst other things he had paid some attention to 

 plant development, as he thought that there was no more instructive com- 

 mentary upon animal structure than that supplied by vegetable growth. 

 Indeed, he might say that the more important conclusions arrived at by 

 such workers as Wolff and others were based very largely upon the study of 

 the development of plants. He could not help saying that he had never 

 heard a better paper, nor one which he regarded as a better piece of work, 

 nor one which had been thought out on more philosophical principles 

 than the paper which they had heard that night. It was one which must 

 especially be instructive to every botanist, and he had been very much 

 struck with the amount of thought and care evinced in its preparation. 

 The President having invited observations upon the paper, and meeting 

 with no response, remarked that there were two classes of papers which 

 furnished very little in the way of discussion, those that were too good, 

 and those that were too bad ; it was the medium class of papers which 

 afforded the best material for discussion. 



Mr. John Hunter read a paper " On the Queen Bee and her fertiliza- 

 tion," illustrating the subject by reference to an elaborately illustrated 

 Italian work on the bee, and by the exhibition of living bees. 



