LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 29 



gall produced by N. numismatis, exceptionally rare this season, 

 and found on the common English oak, Quercus Ilohur, and on Q. 

 lusitanica, Q. infectoria, and Q. Tnrneri; (2) the globose gall, pro- 

 duced by N. ostreus, and got on Q. Rohur and Q. infectoria, on the 

 leaves of which trees it is confined to the midrib on principal veins ; 

 (3) the smooth spangle gall, of a greenish white or rose colour, 

 flattish or saucer-shaped, destitute of hairs, produced by Xemoterus 

 fiDnipemiis, and got on Q. Rohur and Q. lusitanica ; (4) the pale 

 yellowish green scarce spangle gall, produced by N. laiviuscitlus, and 

 only got by Mr. Eolfe on the common oak ; (5) the common 

 spangle gall, produced by N. lenticiilaris, and found not only on Q. 

 Rohur, but also on Q. Farnetto, Q. Toza, Q. lusitanica, Q. infecturia 

 and Q. clentata, the latter a Japanese oak. There was also shown 

 a remarkable blackish purple common gall, found on a variety ot 

 the common oak, Q. Rohur var. Granhyana. This variety of the oak 

 has deep purple leaves, but not so deep as in the var. purpurea, a 

 fact demonstrating that the colour of the gall depends considerably 

 on the oak leaves and not entirely on the insect producer. As a 

 rule, the plan and details of the gall depend on the gall maker and 

 the nature of the irritating fluid deposited by the insect, the gall 

 itself merely representing the effort of the plant to remedy the 

 injury done. That the character of the gall is determined at the 

 time the egg is laid may be inferred from the circumstance that 

 when the larva is destroyed by parasites, at the very earliest stage 

 of gall development, the nature of the gall is not changed, though 

 occasionally dwarfed. The galls found on the different species of 

 oak above mentioned are all perfectly distinct from each other and 

 from that of Quercus Rohur. — The next communication was on a col- 

 lection of plants made in Timor Laut, by Henry 0. Forbes. Therein 

 a short account is given of the nature of the islands and the general 

 character of the vegetation, after which follows a list of about 80 

 plants. Professor Oliver adds a note, that this collection, so far as 

 it goes, is made up in great part of the more widely diffused species 

 of the Indian Archipelago. The most interesting plants appear to 

 be, one in fruit only, referred to the meliaceous genus (Jwenia, 

 probably O. cerasifera, Muell., of Queensland; a fine Mucuna of the 

 section Stizolohium ; Delarhrea, an araliaceous genus hitherto only 

 received from New Caledonia ; and a fruit of possibly a Strombosia. 

 Mr. Forbes is inclined to regard the Timor Laut flora and fauna as 

 having affinities with the Moluccan (Amboina) region. — There 

 followed a note on the reproduction of the heteroecismal Urediues, 

 by Chas. B. Plowright. The author affirms that when the repro- 

 duction of these fungi takes place without the intervention of 

 ascidiospores, the resulting uredospores are far more abundant 

 than in the case when they arise from the implantation upon the 

 host-plant of the ascidiospores, this inference being supported by 

 various detailed observations of the author. 



November 20. — Professor P. Martin Duncan, F.E.S., Vice Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Mr. A. Roope Hunt was elected a Fellow of the 

 Society. Mr. Francis B. Forbes drew attention to specimens 

 of pods and seeds used by the Chinese in the place of soap. Ho 



