14 PROCKEDINfiS OF THE 



The following paper was read : — 



" On the Intestinal Tract of Birds, and the V aluation and 

 Nomenclature of Zoological Characters." By P. Chalmers Mitchell, 

 M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S. 



April 4th, 1901. 



Mr. C. B. Clarke, F.H.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 



A letter was read from the Home Secretary conveying " His 

 Majesty's thanks for the loyal and dutiful Address of the President 

 and Council of the Linnean Society expressing sympathy on the 

 occasion of the lamented death of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria 

 and congratulations on His Majesty's Accession to the Throne." 



Mr. George Stephen West was elected a FeUow of the Society. 



The Secretary exhibited some British species of Plants forwarded 

 by M. Biiysman of Middleburg to show the character of a proposed 

 issue to include the whole of the British Flora ; on which some 

 remarks were made by the Chairman and Mr. James Groves. 



Mr. W. B. Hemsley, F.R.S., exhibited specimens of Sapium and 

 Hevea (Euphorbiacese) and Castilloa (Artocarpaceae), a large series 

 of plants and seeds forwarded by Mr. Jenman, Government Botanist 

 in British Guiana, with a view to clear up certain questions con- 

 cerning the Rubber-trees. The genus Hevea included ten or a 

 dozen described species inhabiting eastern tropical South h merica, 

 but none in the West Indies. Hevea hrasiliemis, the source of the 

 true Para rubber, was not very different from Hevea guianensis, 

 which is restricted to French Guiana, the differences between them 

 being shown in the figures given of the floral structure and seeds in 

 Hooker's Icones Plantarum, plates 2570-2577. It was formerly 

 supposed that two species of Hevea might be distinguished in 

 British Guiana, one (Hevea pariciflora) having thin leaves and a 

 hairy ovary, the other thick coriaceous leaves and a glabrous 

 ovary ; but after examining a large number of specimens, 

 Mr. Hemsley had come to the conclusion that the differences were 

 not constant, and that all the specimens exhibited might belong to 

 one species, and merely represented individual variation. The 

 exhibition demonstrated the difficulty of determining species of 

 Hevea from imperfect specimens, and especially from seeds alone. 



A discussion followed in which Mr. F. N. Williams, the Rev. F. 

 C. Smith, and the Chairman took part. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. " On Plants from the High Andes." By W. B. Hemsley, 

 F.R.S., F.L.S., and H. H. W. Pearson, F.L.S. 



'2,. " On some British Freshwater Rhizopods and Heliozoa." By 

 G. S. West, F.L.S. 



