Linncean Society. 361 



and we must confess that we are unable to find any laws by which 

 the order of transmutation in such monsters is governed. The aim 

 and object with the cultivators of double flowers is, to convert all 

 the floral organs into petals, and we generally refer to cultivation as 

 the cause of flowers becoming double ; further than this, we are igno- 

 rant of the causes of their impletion. They probably owe their ori- 

 gin at first to accidental circumstances, and afterwards the variety is 

 carefully propagated by the methods usually adopted for that pur- 

 pose. The two classes of vegetable functions, namely the vegetative 

 and reproductive, notwithstanding their close connexion, appear to 

 be performed in some degree in opposition the one to the other ; 

 thus any excessive development of the one class takes place at the 

 expense of the other. 



November 4th. — Hewett Cottrell Watson, Esq., V.P., F.L.S., in 

 the Chair. 



Mr. R. Ranking, F.L.S., presented a monstrous specimen oiPlan- 

 tago coronopus, collected at Hastings, showing the easy and natural 

 transition from a spike to a raceme ; also a specimen of Dactylis glo- 

 merata, in which the glumes were become foliaceous. 



The Chairman presented a specimen of Cnicus Forsteri, which he 

 said corresponded exactly with the cultivated specimen of the same 

 species preserved in Smith's Herbarium. The specimen exhibited 

 by Mr. Watson was also a cultivated one, the root having been found 

 near Whitemoor Pond in Surrey, in June 1841, and flowering speci- 

 mens of it exhibited before the Society last year. The wild speci- 

 mens had from two to four flowers only in each stem, whilst the 

 cultivated specimens had ten or a dozen each. Mr. Watson exhi- 

 bited the specimens for the purpose of pointing out the differences 

 between Cnicus Forsteri and Cnicus pratensis, branched specimens 

 of the latter species having been in several instances mistaken for the 

 former. 



The commencement of a paper was read from Mr. G. Clark, of 

 the Island of Mahe (communicated by Mr. H. W. Martin), "OnLo- 

 doicea Sechellarum." 



LINNCEAN SOCIETY. 



March 15, 1842.— E. Forster, Esq., V.R, in the Chair. 



Mr. R. H. Solly exhibited a Cabinet for Microscopic objects made 

 of Cedar- wood, the specimens contained in which, consisting of thinly 

 ground sections of fossil- wood cemented on glass, had become co- 

 vered with a very adhesive varnish. Where the fossil- wood was 

 quite sound, and the cement (probably of Canada Balsam) did not 

 project beyond its edges, very little of the varnish was deposited ; 

 but where the fossil- wood was cracked or unsound, or where the ce- 

 ment projected beyond its edges, it was found in considerable quan- 

 tity ; and on the specimens not cemented to glass, it was deposited 

 chiefly in the pores or cracks which had imbibed some of the oil used 

 in polishing the surface. The cabinet was quite new when the spe- 

 cimens were placed in it, and Mr. Solly supposes that the air con- 



