Botanical Society of London, 137 



Mr. Joseph Freeman read a paper ' On the Geographical Distri- 

 bution of Plants.' 



A paper was also read from Mr. Adam White, being * Note on 

 Peloria,' and a Pelorian variety of Pinguicula vulgaris was exhi- 

 bited, found by Mr. White on Royden Fenn, near Diss, Norfolk, in 

 1835, 



January 4, 1839. — John Edward Gray, Esq., F.R.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 

 Mr. Daniel Cooper, A.L.S., Curator, read a paper, being 'Re- 

 marks on the Dispersion of Plants in the environs of London, and the 

 formation of plans exhibiting the distribution of species over locali- 

 ties,' which led to some discussion. 



January 18, 1839. — John Edward Gray, Esq., F.R.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



Mr. G. E. Dennes, F.L.S., exhibited specimens of Aspidium rigi- 

 dum, sent to him by the Rev. W. T. Bree, and cultivated from a root 

 brought by him from Ingleborough, Yorkshire, in 1815. 



Mr. Daniel Cooper, A.L.S., exhibited a Shirt from Sweden, made 

 from the liber of Linden. 



A paper was read from M. I. J. Sidney, Esq., * On the Botany of 

 Morpeth, Northumberland,' and containing a list of the Plants to be 

 found in that district. 



The Curator also continued his paper * On the dispersion of 

 Plants in the environs of London, and the formation of plans exhi- 

 biting the distribution of species over localities.' 



February 1, 1839.-— John Edward Gray, Esq., F.R.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 

 A paper was read from Dr. H. A. Meeson, " On the Formation of 

 Leaves." He began by observing that leaves cannot be expansions 

 of the epidermis, because if so they must then of necessity be com- 

 posed entirely of cellular tissue, whereas they are known to abound 

 in vascular tissue. If leaves be expansions of the bark it must ne- 

 cessarily follow that all modifications of them must be the same, there- 

 fore petals, sepals, stamina and pistils must be expansions of this 

 substance. But these organs exist in endogens, a class of plants 

 manifestly without bark, and in exogens their texture is so com- 

 pletely different from that of the bark that it would be absurd to com- 

 pare them. Dr. M. considered leaves to be the essential part of a 

 plant ; they exist in the embryo, and by expanding and unfolding 

 themselves suck up sap through the radicle, and having exposed it 

 Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol. 4. No, 22. Oct. 1839. l 



