167 



made anything of the kind was Seibert, whose No. was a little 

 higher than a ljin. 



Messrs. Watson and Sons exhibited an adaptation to the 

 " Student " class of microscope of a centring under-stage fitting, 

 conveniently worked by means of two screws and two opposing 

 springs. 



The President thought this was an addition much required, and 

 supplied a want which he had himself tried to meet on two or three 

 occasions. None of these cheaper microscopes could be regarded 

 as complete without some kind of centring sub-stage fitting, and 

 the one which Mr. Watson had shown appeared to be a simple and 

 at the same time a very efficient form. 



Mr. C. Rousselet described a spirit-proof micro-cement which he 

 had found efficient, a slide exhibited having been mounted with 

 it about eight years ago. 



Mr. J. W. Reed read a paper on " The Flora of the Pyrenees," 

 illustrating the subject by the exhibition of a large and extremely 

 well-preserved and mounted collection of the plants described. 



Mr. H. Groves thought all present must have listened with 

 great interest to Mr. Reed's description of the flora of this 

 district, with which everyone who had visited it was sure to 

 have been delighted ; and he was sure that all must have admired 

 the beautiful collection of specimens exhibited upon the tables 

 before them, more especially when they realized what w r ere 

 the difficulties met with in collecting and preserving during 

 a holiday trip in such a district. This was not, of course, a 

 representative collection, but it was certainly a very interesting 

 one, and he had been rather struck by the fact that so many of the 

 species were British — he thought that out of the 110 represented 

 in this collection 43 were common to the British Islands. It was 

 also curious to notice that many of our common genera when found 

 so much further south were then found growing at a much greater 

 altitude, seeming to indicate the remnants of a much wider 

 distribution, and that an alteration of temperature had been taking 

 place by the increase of which these plants had been driven more 

 and more up the mountains. TLe remarks as to the British Flora, 

 quoted from Mr. Baker, were very interesting, but were not very 

 surprising, for, as geological time was reckoned, we bad not been 

 separated from the Continent long enough to have a distinct Flora of 

 our own. The existence of plants in the West of Ireland common to 



