Royal Society. 131 



animal manure, and stated that he had always found the ergot most 

 abundant in the grasses of churchyards. 



June 24. — " On the Germination of Plants." By Dr. Lankester. 



The author took the following view of the phsenomena : — That 

 the only essential process in germination is the growth of the young 

 plant, or embryo. The process of development of the embryo, from 

 primitive cytoblasts developing its tissues, is precisely the same as 

 that of every other part of the plant, and from an identity of struc- 

 ture an identity of function might be inferred. But the ordinary 

 theory of germination gave a different function to the tissues of the 

 embryo. The author regarded the absorption of oxygen, the disen- 

 gagement of carbonic acid gas and ammonia, as the consequence of 

 the decomposition of the starch and proteine contained in the albu- 

 men or perisperm of the seed ; and that the growing cells of the 

 embryo appropriated the carbonic acid, ammonia and water, just in 

 the same way as all other cells in the vegetable kingdom. 



Mr. Westwood made some remarks on the Honey-Bee. — After 

 shortly noticing the general oeconomy of the hive-bee as to the pro- 

 duction of queens and the swarming of casts, he contended, from 

 the analogy between the circumstances connected with the latter 

 event and those which accompany the swarming of ants, gnats, white 

 ants, mayflies, &c., — 1st, that the swarming of insects has for its 

 principal object the union of the sexes ; 2nd, that from analogy with 

 other insects subject to swarming, it is to be inferred that that species 

 does not differ in this respect from other swarming species ; and, 

 3rd, that it is the newly-hatched, and not the old queen which leads 

 off the swarm. 



June 25. — ** Notes on the Irish Species of Robertsonian Saxi- 

 frages." By Mr. Andrews. 



The author having studied the Irish Saxifrages, and compared 

 them with those of the Pyrenees, had come to a different conclusion 

 from Mr. Babington, and believed that there were only two true 

 species in Ireland, the Saxifraga umbrosa and the S. Geurti. The 

 other species described by Mr. Babington in his * Manual,' he re- 

 garded as varieties of one or other of these forms. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



Jtlne 19, 184^5. — " The Blood-Corpuscle considered in its different 

 phases of development in the Animal Series." By Thomas Wharton 

 Jones, Esq., F.R.S., Lecturer on Anatomy, Physiology and Patho- 

 logy, at the Charing Cross Hospital. 



This paper is divided into three parts : the first relating to the 

 blood-corpuscles of the Vertebrata ; the second to those of the In- 

 vertebrata ; and the last to a comparison between the two. He first 

 describes the microscopic appearances of these corpuscles in differ- 

 ent classes of vertebrate animals, beginning with the skate and the 

 frog, and proceeding to birds and mammifera ; first in their early 

 embryonic state, and next in the subsequent periods of their growth. 

 He finds in oviparous vertebrata generally, jfbur principal forms of 



