OTAGU INSTITUTE. 



First Meeting : 9th May, 1898. 

 F. E. Chapman, President, in the chair. 



Neiv Members. — Mr. W. Moore, of Waikouaiti ; Mr. Stan- 

 ley Carr, Dunedin ; Dr. Frank Hay. 



The President, in his opening remarks, stated that a 

 message of sympathy had been sent on behah' of the Institute 

 to Mrs. Kirk, together with the following resolution : "That 

 the Council of the Otago Institute records its deep sense of 

 the loss sustained by the colony in the death of the late 

 Thomas Kirk, F.L.S., whose scientific labours have contri- 

 buted so largely to the advancement of the study of botany in 

 New Zealand." 



Dr. T. M. Hocken read a paper on " The Fire Ceremony 

 of the Fijians." (Transactions, p. 667.) 



Second Meeting : 14th June, 1898. 

 Dr. T. M. Hocken in the chair. 



Nezo Member. — Professor W. Blaxland Benham, D.Sc. 



Paper. — " On some Peculiar Attachment-discs developed 

 in some Species of Loranthus" by G. M. Thomson, F.L.S. 



Abstract. 



The author described the various forms of parasitic flowering-plauts 

 which were to be found in New Zealand, dwelling especially on the 

 dodders [Cuscuta] and tlie various species of mistletoe (Loranthus, 

 Tupeia, and Viscjim). The dodders belong to the Convolvulus family. 

 The seed falls into the ground and germinates there in the usual manner, 

 putting out a delicate thread-like shoot. When this comes in contact 

 with any part of a neighbouring plant it at once coils itself round it, 

 and developes wart-like suckers, by means of which it abstracts nourish- 

 ment from its host. These suckers send out minute root-like processes, 

 which penetrate the tissues of the host, but this penetration, as a rule, 

 does not extend much deeper than the cortex, so that the material 

 abstracted consists of the already assimilated juices of the plant, and the 

 parasite is therefore spared the necessity of producing leaves. As soon as 

 the suckers develope the primary root dies. The mature dodder is then 



