60 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



a peculiar kind of venation runs through the whole of any other 

 order than that of the Umbelliferse, and that it runs through that 

 order appeared to be a fact. After having carefully examined all 

 the plants he, Mr. Hogg, could get together, they one and all 

 confirmed the statements made by Mr. Grorham with regard to 

 this group. It was quite true that some few attempts had been 

 made to classify, or rather tabulate the venation of plants, but 

 only a slight advance had been seen in this respect since the time 

 of Dr. Grew, who, in his treatise on the " Anatomy of Plants," 

 presented to the Royal Society in 1682, noticed the peculiarities 

 of the structure of the fibres of the leaf, and published 

 drawings showing something like an attempt at classification. 

 As Mr. Gorham had shown his observations to Dr. Lindley 

 it appeared strange that this eminent botanist had not made 

 use of them to perfect his own classification of leaf venation, 

 which, it must be acknowledged, was left in a very imperfect state. 

 Now, however, Mr. Gorham proposes to reduce the question of 

 leaf venation to practical utility, and in a large and important 

 order of plants as that of the TJmbelliferse, which includes those 

 yielding articles of diet, medicinal substances, and acro-narcotic 

 poisons, it must become a subject of considerable value ; and, 

 although the facts brought to the notice of the Society may not 

 at the present moment appear to have " any great physiological 

 importance," it was, nevertheless, an excellent thing to get hold of 

 a point in the perfect discrimination of a large genus, which, in- 

 cluding as it does so many edible species, has very many more 

 containing active poisonous principles, aromatic oils, gum-resins, 

 &c. A morphological analogy had been shown to exist between 

 the stem and the ribs or veins of the leaf; doubtless an analogy 

 can be traced between the skeleton of the leaf and the skeleton 

 of the branch in a number of points, as well as in the general 

 resemblance between the ramifications of the plant and that of 

 the venation of the leaf. On making a close examination under 

 a power of fifty diameters of the leaves of the Umbelliferae pre- 

 pared by Mr. Gorham, Mr. Hogg observed that the analogy is 

 borne out to a remarkable degree in the whole : and further that 

 the analogy can be carried even to the venation of the petals and 

 stamens. The umbels of the hemlock show this exceedingly well, 

 and, no doubt, when others have been more closely examined, 

 it will be found that the plant, the branches, the leaves, and 

 flowers, present a morphology as uniform as it is remarkable. 

 Thanks were unanimously voted to Mr. Gorham for his paper. 



The meeting was then made special. 



Ellis J. Lobb, Esq., proposed the following resolutions : 

 " That every Fellow who shall be elected after the meeting on 

 11th December, 1867, shall, in addition to the entrance-fee of 

 two guineas, pay a further sum of two guineas as his first annual 

 subscription ; and shall pay, so long as he continues a Fellow, an 

 annual subscription of two guineas, which shall be due on the 



