190 Gelehrte Gesellschaften. 



drew attention to specimens of Queren s Hex, var. Fordii, from Barnstaple, 

 Devon, showinsf remarkable alteration in the leaves after pruning. — Mr. G. 

 Morray exhibited specimens of dace killed by the fungus disease (Sapro- 

 legnia ferax), the result of inoculation, and said to be the first recorded 

 experimental proof of the communicability of the disease to those fish. — 

 A paper was read by Mr. H. N. Ridley : ,0n New and Rare Mono- 

 cotyledonous Plants from Madagascar". The plants described 

 were in part collected by the Rev. W. üeansCowan in East Central 

 Madagascar, and sent by him to the British Museum ; to which were added 

 notes and descriptions of others collected by Hildebrandt and Hilsen- 

 berg and Bojer. Among them is a fine new species of Drimia (a genus 

 not hitherto recorded from Madagascar) called „Rat-onion" by the natives, 

 who use it to poison rats ; and a species of Xerophyta closely allied to X. 

 dasylirioides, but with the leaves thickly covered with spines. Several 

 specimens of Dioscorea hexagona, collected by Hilsenberg and Bojer 

 and later by Hildebrandt are worth notice. The species was described 

 by Mr. Baker in Journ. Bot. 1882. p. 270, as a climbing plant with cordate 

 leaves, but these specimens are erect in habit, about a foot high, withnarrow, 

 oblong, i'eticulated leaves, looking quite unlike a Dioscorea. In some ofthe 

 other Dioscoreas, such as D. pyrenaica, the young plant is at first erect and 

 then trails along the ground , but is never more than about an inch in the 

 erect growth, whereas D. hexagona grows to the height of one foot erect. 

 Among the orchids are two new species of the small-flowered group of 

 Polystachya and two of the typically Madagascar genus Cynosorchis, one 

 of which is remarkable for its possessmg but one or two very large handsome 

 green, white and purple flowers. Among the Cyperaceae, Courtoisia cype- 

 r i d e s , a well-known Indian plant , was collected by Hildebrandt in 

 Madagascar, thus extending its ränge westward. A new species of Fintel- 

 m a n n i a was obtained by Mr. Deana Cowan, and there are also specimens 

 from Hilsenberg and Bojer in the British Museum Herbarium. The 

 genus hitherto has only contained a single wellknown Brasilian species, 

 which differs very considerably from the Madagascar plant, which has 

 numerous small spikelets, of which far the greater number have only male 

 flowers, the females being usually two or three together in the upper parts 

 ot the lowest spikelets; the leaves are setaceous and armed with fine spines. 

 There is also a new genus (A er iulus) ofthe Sei er ieae, allied in some respects 

 to Cryptangium; of this there are two species ; one from Madagascar, where 

 it was collected by Baron and also by Hildebrandt, the other from 

 Angola, collected by Dr. Wel witsch. They are tall marsh plants, with 

 somewhat the habit of a Cladium orGalinia, with broad leaves edged more 

 or less conspicuously with spines , and a panicle of small purple or green 

 and purple spikelets. The great number of the flowers are male, the female 

 spikelets are very few and placed in the lower part of the panicle ; indeed 

 these have not been seen in the Angolan plant. The stamens are provided 

 with a conical apiculus, crimson in the Angola plant, covered with short 

 processes, which from their shape and position suggest some homology with 

 stigmatic hairs. The style is remarkably cleft almost to the base, where it 

 is dilated , then contracted so as to appear articulated to the next. — Mr. 

 T. H. Corry read a paper „On the Fertilization of the Asclepiads" , chiefly 

 bearing out views already noticed on a former occasion (see Journ. Bot. 

 1883. p. 94). [From The Journal of Botany. Vol. XXI. No. 247. p. 219—224.] 



Einladung 



zu der 



56. Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte. 



— «♦< 



Durch Beschluss der im vorigen Jahre iu Eisenach tagenden 

 Naturforscher und Aerzte wurde die Stadt Freiburg i. B. zum Orte 



