238 NATURAL HISTORY. 



This however was not intended as a means of retaining the pollen masses in 

 the flower in which it was produced, but rather as a means of beiDg carried 

 away to other flowers, as it adhered readily to anything with which it came in 

 contact. As insects were frequent visitors, especially bees and moths, they 

 were often the agents in effecting the cross-fertilization which is the rule in this 

 Order. Pollen masses from the two Orders were shown under microscopes' 

 Returning again to the comose seed, Dr. MacDonald stated that he had identified 

 the plant as the Anodendron pmiculatum of Dalzell and Gibson's Bombay Flora, 

 or the Gymnema nipalense of Hooker's Flora of British India, the native name 

 being Lamtani, 



The identification of this plant illustrated the great value of the natural 

 system of classification as compared with the artificial or LiDnsean system. The 

 small twig, with its milky juice, the leaves, and the fruit containing the comose 

 seeds, supplied data sufficient to make it certain that the plant belonged to one 

 of two Orders ; and this without the flower, without which any one working on 

 the Linnsean system could not take a single step, as the whole system was 

 based on the parts of the flower. 



Dr. MacDonald then pointed out that the stalk of the fruit turned back on 

 itself so as to make the face or side on which it opens turn downwards. As 

 the fruit matures the seeds become loose in the fruit, and when it splits open, as 

 the seeds fall out the wind expands the crown of hairs, and they are thus launch- 

 ed on their voyage of life. The comose crowns, acting as parachutes to 

 prevent the seeds falling at once to the ground, after a time very readily sepa- 

 rate, leaving the seeds to germinate where they fall when the rains come. 



Before concluding, Dr. MacDonald recommended members who might be 

 interested in the wonderful examples of adaptations of means to an end which 

 occur so frequently in plants to read such books as Sir John Lubbock's recent 

 volume — one of the Nature Series - entitled Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves. Although 

 dealing almost exclusively with English plants, auy one reading such a book might 

 learn to regard the plants they saw, even in their own compounds, with more 

 interest than hitherto. 



Links in the Mammalian Chain. 



Mr. Sterndale then read a paper on some links in the Mammalian Chain 

 illustrated by drawings. He said : — " It is common enough to talk of the Animal 

 kingdom as one great chain — and so it is — link is hooked on to link till we 

 find that we are at last the ten billionth cousin of the cabbage we are eating, 

 and so our consciences accuse us of practising homoeopathic cannibalism ! You 

 may think this is exaggeration; but look at the Campanularia, of which I give 

 here a magnified sketch ; it looks like a plant, it has buds and flowers, and is 

 propagated, we may say, by cutting*, but it is an animal — a Zoophyte — yet how 

 little removed is it in its life from the Drosera rotundifolia, the Sun-dew, and 

 other carnivorous plants, which, with surprising life-like attributes, not only 

 catch flies and other insects, but hold them till partly digested. 



" These are links which carry us on to our cousin the cabbage, but I do not 

 -ntend to trace out the pedigree so far. Our time would not permit of such 

 extensive research, so I propose only to give a few of the most curious links in 

 the chain as far as the mammals go. The missing link of course we have not 



