1870.] BULGER — ON VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. 75 



highest trees, whence depend its beautiful foliage, small, yellow 

 flowers and immense seed-pods, which Sir Emerson Tennent met 

 with six inches wide and fully five feet in length. He says the 

 Kandyans call it maha-pus-ivael, meaning great hollow climber, 

 and that probably the mountain region of Pusilawa, which he 

 describes as very beautiful, and one of the finest cofiee-districts in 

 Ceylon, takes its name from this plant. The seeds, he adds, 

 which are handsome brown beans of an immense size, furnish the 

 natives of Ceylon with tinder-boxes, which they make by scooping 

 out a portion of the interior. They are also used in medicine and 

 as a detergent. The plant seems widely distributed, and is in- 

 cluded in the Cape Flora. The seeds, according to Harvey and 

 Sonder, are the common sword-beans of the East and West Indies, 

 and of the tropical Pacific. The generic name is of Indian origin 

 — entada being the Malayalam designation. 



NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



MONTHLY MEETINGS. 



(Proceedings from January \st to April 30^^-, 1870.) 



Third monthly meeting, January 31st, 1870; Rev. Dr. De 

 Sola presiding. 



DONATIONS TO THE LIBRARY. 



R^apparition du Genre Arethusina, Barrande; and Faune 

 Silurienne des Environs de Hof, en Baviere — paf Joachim 

 Barrande. From the Author. 



Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard 

 College, Cambridge, Mass. (Nos. 9 to 13). From the Trustees. 



PROCEEDINGS. 



Prof. J. W. Marsh, of Pacific College, Forest Grove, Oregon, 

 was elected a corresponding member of the Society. 



The following resolutions, having been moved by Principal 

 Dawson and seconded by Rev. Dr. De Sola, were carried unani- 

 mously : — 



"That this Society, in presenting its medal to Sir W. E. 



