314 PROCEEDINGS OP PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 



was slightly hooked at the point, and, except in length, perfectly 

 similar to that of the soft-billed or insectivorous birds. 



An elaborate paper, by Mr. Henry Pidgeon, was next read, on 

 the Ancient History of the Hundred and Manor of Stottesden, 

 county Salop, in which the descent and property of the manor was, 

 with considerable ability, clearly and satisfactorily traced, from the 

 earliest to the present times. Mr. P. also intimated his intention 

 of resuming the subject at some future period. 



Afterwards, an excellent paper on the Sleep of Plants was read 

 by Dr. Henry Johnson, which excited great interest and attention. 

 The author, after briefly reviewing the opinions of preceding wri- 

 ters as to the cause of the phenomenon proved by a series of careful 

 observations and experiments, that the sleep of plants was quite 

 independent of the humidity of the atmosphere, and the absence or 

 presence of solar light ; and deduced that the cause would, in all 

 probability, be found in the relative degree of light, or in the tran- 

 sition from a greater to a less light ; and that those motions which 

 produce the phenomena of sleeping and waking of plants, depend 

 on irritability, and are governed by all the rules which influence, in 

 other cases, this vital property. 



Mr. R. A. Slaney then read some highly interesting observations 

 on a pair of Choughs, which had been partially domesticated, and 

 whose habits, in consequence, he had been enabled to observe. 



Mr. T. C. Eyton afterwards offered some remarks on the syste- 

 matic classification of the Chough. 



Mr. W. A. Leighton made a few passing observations in intro- 

 ducing to the Society a specimen of Erica Mackaiana, (Bab. MSS.), 

 a species of Heath, new to the British Flora, which had been found 

 during the month of August, 1835, in Connemara, in the West of 

 Ireland, by Mr. C. C. Babington, of Cambridge, an honorary mem- 

 ber of the Society. This species holds an intermediate station be- 

 tween Erica letralix and E. cinerea, partaking of the flowers of the 

 former, and the delicate ciliato-glandulose leaves of the latter. 



After the usual vote of thanks to the chairman, the meeting se- 

 parated. 



March 2nd. — Dr. Du Gard, V. P., in the chair. — An interesting 

 Paper, by Mr. J. E. Bowman, of Gresford, was read, giving an ac- 

 count of the structure and affinities of a new fossil vegetable, named 

 Favularia nodosa,* discovered by him in the roof of the lowest 

 workable coal, at Flint Marsh Colliery, on the estuary of the Dee. 

 A fine specimen of this beautiful fossil, presented by the discoverer, 

 was exhibited, on which the undulations and pencillings of the 

 areolae to which the bases of the leaves had been attached were as 

 clear and sharp as the impression from a seal, and even required the 

 lens to shew their delicate inequalities. 



Mr. T. C. Eyton commenced the reading of a catalogue of the 



• Since engraved (most miserably) in Lindley's and Hutton's Fossil Flora, 

 part 20. 



