70 Linncoan Society. 



Esq. ; W. G. Maton, M.D. ; J. F. Royle, Esq. ; J. Sabine, Esq. ; 

 R. H. Solly, Esq. ; W. Yarrell, Esq. 



Officeks : — President, Edward Lord Stanley ; Treasurer, Edward 

 Forster, Esq. ; Secretary, Francis Boott, M.D. ; Under-Secretary, 

 Richard Taylor, Esq. 



June 4. — Read a communication from Thomas Andrew Knight, 

 Esq. F.R.S. & L.S., President of the Horticultural Society, giving an 

 account of two remarkable examples of sagacity displayed by Birds 

 during the period of incubation. The most remarkable of these was 

 as follows : — A wild duck had deposited her eggs near the side of 

 a brook, but so far above the highest level to which the water had 

 ever been known to rise, as to be apparently perfectly secure from 

 being overflowed. An exceedingly violent thunder-storm, however, 

 caused the brook suddenly to rise far above its usual level ; the nest 

 was in consequence overflowed, and the eggs remained submerged 

 during more than two hours. No expectations were entertained 

 that the bird would ever return to the nest, or that life had not been 

 totally extinguished in the eggs j but she did return to the nest, and 

 every egg hatched well. The water which had covered the eggs 

 was very warm, and the temperature of the nest and the eggs, after 

 the water had subsided, probably led the animal, Mr. Knight con- 

 ceives, to resume her labours, which he is of opinion she would not 

 have done if a lower temperature and longer immersion in the water 

 had extinguished life in the eggs, and of course rendered such la- 

 bour abortive. 



The President, in a letter addressed to the Secretary, nominated 

 the four following Members of the Council to be Vice-Presidents for 

 the ensuing year, commencing from the 24th of May last, viz. Robert 

 Brown, Esq. ; Edward Forster, Esq. j A. B. Lambert, Esq. j and 

 W. G. Maton, M.D. 



June 18. — A paper was read, entitled " Characters and Descrip- 

 tion of Limnanthes, a new genus of plants allied to Floerkea," by 

 Robert Brown, Esq., V.P.L.S. 



For specimens of the plant described the writer is indebted to 

 the Horticultural Society, and to Mr. David Douglass, F.L.S., by 

 whom it was recently discovered in California. 



Mr. Brown was led more particularly to examine Limnanthes, 

 from its resemblance to Floerkea of Willdenow, a genus which he 

 had many years since investigated without being able to determine 

 its place in the natural system. Examination proved these two 

 plants to be so nearly akin, that they might perhaps be included 

 in the same genus. They are here, however, separated, and the 

 two genera are considered as forming a family distinct from all those 

 at present known. 



The place of this new family (Limnanthes) is not absolutely 

 determined ; but it is suggested that in two remarkable points of 

 its structure, namely, the presence of glands subtending the alter- 

 nate filaments, and the existence of a gynobase, it more nearly ap- 

 proaches to Hypogynous families than to Perigynous, with which it 

 has hitherto been associated. 



