1 6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Mr. J. Harris Stone, M.A., exhibited a dried specimen of 

 Nicotiana gJauca which he found in the island of Fuerte- 

 ventura, one of the easterly islands of the Canary group. The 

 plant is a native of Buenos Ayres, where it grows to a height 

 o£ 10 feet. In the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote 

 Mr. Stone found the plant growing in the village-streets and by 

 the path-sides as a weed. From investigations made on the spot, 

 he found that in some way or other it was introduced into the 

 Canaries in 1867-69, since which date it has spread in a mar- 

 vellously rapid manner. The plant is known to the islanders by 

 the name of " mismo " (same), an appellation which arose from 

 the suddenness of the plant's advent in the Canaries, the natives 

 asking one another if they too had the plant at home, the answer 

 being always "the same " (mismo). In general physiognomy, 

 the Canary plant differs from the specimens in the British 

 Museum from other parts of the world ; and in the islands it only 

 grows to a height of 3 or 4 feet. 



Mr. E. Vowell Sherring exhibited a photograph of the mud- 

 volcanoes of " Devil's Wood Yard," Trinidad, West Indies. It 

 was mentioned that the amount of saline material in the mud 

 seemed to have an influence on the vegetation which sprung up 

 around. 



There was also exhibited a photograph, taken in 1886 by Mr. 

 E. D. M. Yerbeck, of the Peak of Eakata, volcano of Krakatau, 

 showing the changes that had taken place since the great erup- 

 tion in 1883. 



Some fresh Primulas from the neighbourhood of Saffron Walden 

 were exhibited by Mr. Frederick J. Hanbury, including two in- 

 teresting hybrids, viz. Primula elatior X vulgaris and P. elatior x 

 veris. The latter is exceedingly rare, and has only been known 

 as British during the last four years. Both are intermediate 

 in their character between the parents, and neither of them 

 produce any fruit in cultivation, but wither away immediately 

 after flowering. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. " Experimental Observations on certain British Heteroecious 

 Uredines." By Charles B. Plowright, F.L.S. 



2. '■^Vaccinium intermedium^ Ruthe, a new British Plant." By 

 N. E. Brown, A.L.S. 



3. " Bigeneric Orchid Hybrids." By Eobert Allen Eolfe, 

 A.L.S. 



4. " Eeport on the Alcyoniid and Gorgouiid Alcyonaria col- 

 lected in the Mergui Archipelago by Dr. John Anderson." By 

 Stuart 0. Eidley, M.A., F.L.S. 



