Linncean Society. 409 



coming daily of greater importance ; its production was almost illi- 

 mitable, and there had been a preparing manufactory lately esta- 

 blished at Calcutta. The plants yielding astringent productions were 

 also very numerous, and some importance must be attached to this 

 class, as the supply of European barks must, at no distant day, di- 

 minish to such a degree as to call the attention of those interested to 

 the subject. The oil-producing plants were very numerous, and India 

 had been looked to as a country from which we may justly calculate 

 upon for supplies. The sapoline principle was developed in many of 

 the specimens, similar to that of the soap-plant of the West Indies ; it 

 was now beginning to be usefully applied in washing silk. Several 

 flaxes and silks were also on the table ; but before a proper account 

 can be given as to their merits, they will require to be prepared. 

 Dr. Cauter read a paper on a zoological collection, consisting prin- 

 cipally of molluscee and-zoophytes, which he exhibited, and were col- 

 lected by him on the coasts of Sunberdunds. The phosphorescent 

 changes of colour in the ocean caused by these animals he described 

 as rivalling in beauty those of the cameleon. 



LINN^EAN SOCIETY. 



May 24. — This day, the anniversary of the birth-day of Linnaeus, 

 and that appointed in the charter for the election nf Council and 

 Officers, the Right Rev. the Bishop of Norwich, President of the 

 Society, opened the business of the meeting, and in stating the 

 number of Fellows whom the Society had lost during the past year, 

 gave the following notices of some of them. 



James Agar, Esq., died at the advanced age of 81. He was the 

 last surviving member of a society established in London for the cul- 

 tivation of natural history, which preceded the foundation of the 

 Linnaean Society, and which reckoned among its members John 

 Hunter, Hudson, and Curtis. Mr. Agar became a Fellow of this 

 Society in 1826, and in his capacity of trustee transferred to it the 

 books and other property which had belonged to the Natural History 

 Society. 



William Bent ham, Esq. 



Thomas Castle, M.D. — This gentleman was the author of some 

 elementary works on Botany and Anatomy. 



The Rev. John Horatio Dickenson. 



Sir William Elf or d, Bart., F.R.S. — Sir William Elford was an 

 Honorary Member of the Royal Academy, and was up to a late pe- 

 riod of life, which was prolonged beyond 80, in the habit of add- 

 ing to the exhibitions at Somerset House some of his own paintings, 

 which were regarded by competent judges as evincing great merit. 



