LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. I T 



William Denison Eoebuck, Esq., and Frederick Newton 

 Williams, Esq., were elected Fellows. 



Professor Ernest Haeckel of Jena, Professor Alexander Kowa- 

 levsky of Odessa, and Professor S. Schwendeuer of Berlin were 

 elected Foreign Members. 



Mr. Stuart 0. Eidley exhibited drawings of the sjiiculation of 

 some Sponges collected and forwarded by Dr. William C 

 Ondaatje, F.L.S., o£ Ceylon, sections of which had been shown at 

 a previous Meeting of the Society (20th December, 1883). Mr. 

 Eidley also exhibited and made remarks on certain other highly 

 finished coloured sketches of Ceylonese Actiniae drawn from life 

 under the superintendence o£ Dr. Ondaatje. 



Prof. F. Jeftrey Bell afterwards pointed out the chief charac- 

 teristics of a set of drawings of Comatulids, taken from the living 

 objects as obtained by Dr. Ondaatje from the seas of Ceylon. 



Mr. T. Christy showed an example of the so-called " Vegetable- 

 Fur." 



Among other exhibitions were dried plants in illustration of 

 Mr. Eolfe's paper, and birds of that of Mr. Sharpe ; while Mr. 

 Brook had under the microscope preparations demonstrating the 

 segmentation-stage, the embryonic shield, and commencement of 

 keel, the early embryo (3rd day) before closure of the blasto- 

 pore, and of the 4th-day blastopore, with Kupffer's vesicle*, also 

 at the 8th day ; and the newly hatched embryo of the Weever- 

 fish {Trachinus vipera). 



The following papers were read : — 



1. " On a Collection of Birds from the Bahr-el-Ghazal Pro- 

 vince and the Nyam-Nyam Country in Equatorial Africa." By 

 E. Bowdler Sharpe, F.L.S. 



2. " On the Fauna of the Philippine Islands and its probable 

 Derivation." Bv E. A. Eolfe, Esq. (Communicated by Prof. 

 Oliver, F.E.S., F^L.S.) 



3. " Preliminary Account of the Development of the Weever- 

 fish (Trachmus vipera)." By George Brook, F.L.S, 



May 24th, 1884. 



Anniversary/ Meeting. 



Prof P. Mabtin Duncan, F.E.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 



Mr. H. T. Stainton, on the part of the Audit Committee, read 

 the Annual Eeceipts and Payments, as shown on p. 12. 



The Treasurer, Mr. Frank Crisp, then submitted a detailed 

 explanation of the various items in the foregoing statement, 

 calling special attention to the alterations and improvements 



