Zoological Society. 51 



or dots. The cellules in Cycas revoluta vary both in size and 

 structure, some being three or four times longer, whilst others are 

 still longer and narrower, and furnished with more numerous and 

 much smaller dots, which are not confined to the sides, but are 

 disposed around the tube. These last, which have been observed 

 also in Cycas glauca and circinalis, present an evident transition to 

 the dotted vessels. 



The whole of the Cycadea are supplied with numerous gummife- 

 rous canals, often of great length, and uniformly furnished with 

 distinct cellular walls of considerable thickness, and which have 

 been accurately described and figured by Professor Morren in a 

 recent memoir. 



Notwithstanding the analogies presented by their reproductive 

 organs, the author considers the Cycadea as related to Conifercs 

 only in a remote degree, and that they constitute the remains of a 

 class of plants which belonged to a former vegetation. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



June 25, 1839. — Dr. Bostockinthe Chair. 



A paper by T. C. Eyton, Esq., entitled " Catalogue of a Collection 

 of Birds from Malaya, with descriptions of the new species," was read. 



" The collection of Birds, of which the following is a catalogue, 

 are in the possession of Mr. Evans, of the Wyle Cop, Shrewsbury, 

 having been collected by his brother in the above-mentioned coun- 

 try. This collection is particularly interesting when taken in con- 

 junction with that of the neighbouring islands of Sumatra and Java, 

 an account of which is published in the Transactions of the Linnsean 

 Society, vol. xiii., by Sir T. Stamford Raffles and Dr. Horsfield. 



•' The zoology of Malaya is altogether highly deserving of the at- 

 tention of the naturalist, presenting as it does a connecting link be- 

 tween those families of which Australia is the metropolis, and the 

 forms of the Old World. The ornithology of Australia is distin- 

 guished by the number of species belonging to the family Melipha- 

 gidce which it produces, and we find from the present catalogue and 

 that above-mentioned, that the Indian islands and the Malay penin- 

 sula also possess a greater number of species belonging to this family 

 than any other portion of the world excepting Australia. This trans- 

 ition may also be traced through the marsupial animals, and man, 

 the Malay variety of the human species approaching nearer to the 

 Australian than any other in the form of the cranium. 



" The present collection contains eighty-nine species, of which se- 

 veral are new to science ; there are also some entirely new genera ; 



E 2 



