LI]S"?fEAlSr SOCIETY OF LONDON. IJ 



The revenue for the past year has beeu so large that we 'nave 

 not only iuvested the jiroportion of the Compositions that by a 

 wise resolution of Council has been invested for some years past, 

 but we have been able to re-invest tlie money that the heavy but 

 temporary expenses of the previous year compelled us to with- 

 draw. 



The annual expenditure on our publications and on our 

 library are on a scale more liberal than one had a right to expect 

 from a Society with so limited a membership, and so small a total 

 income; but so long as the Linneau Society retains the con- 

 fidence o£ men of science, and the enrolment among its Fellows is 

 an ambition to students of science, we may hope thus eificiently to 

 discharge the important work committed to us. Let me, however, 

 remind the Fellows that the future is in their hands. They must 

 supply t;he communications that will engage the attention of our 

 meetings and maintain the credit of our publications. They 

 must also secure the new recruits — students and lovers of science 

 — who shall occupy the places of those lost to us, and sujjply the 

 income needed for our work. 



During the past session our meetings have been well attended, 

 and the subjects engaging our attention have been varied and 

 important. 



The series of papers that have dealt with Dr. Anderson's 

 exploration of the Mergui Archipelago has been finished. Mr. 

 Ridley, with the aid of other workers, placed before us the 

 results of his ex,)loration of Fernando do Norouha. Mr. Barftn, 

 assisted by Mr. J. Gr. B^ker, has submitted to us the conclusions 

 drawn from many years' study of the Flora of Madagascar. Mr. 

 Hemsley described the nature and investigated the origin of the 

 Flora of Christmas Island. Prof. MacOvvan and Mr. Bolus 

 added to our knowledge of the Flora of the Cape; and Mr. 

 Mitten submitted an exhaustive enumeration of the Mosses and 

 Hej^atics of Japan. From Dr. Masters we had an important 

 memoir on the morphology and life-history of the Coniferae ; and 

 from Prof Henslow a suggestive communication on the vascular 

 systems of floi*al organs. Mr. Massee gave us the second part of 

 his Monograph of the Thelephorese ; and from Mr. Lister we had 

 a singularly lucid account of the forms and life-history of the 

 Myxomycetes. Mr. Murray described a new genus of Grreen 

 Algse ; and Mr. liolfe communicated a revision of the Apostasice, 

 and a paper on the sexual forms of Catasctum. Mr. Spencer 

 Moore discussed the structure and systematic position of Apio- 

 cystis, regarding it as a genus of Folvocitiece. Dr. Costerus 

 placed before us some malformations he had observed in Fuchsia. 



From Prof Duncan we had a Eevisiou of the families and 

 genera of the Echinoidea, both recent and fossil. Mr. Lowue 

 submitted a continuation of his important observations on the 

 Blow-fly, dealing with the development of the egg and blasto- 

 derm, and the structure of the retina. Mr. Michael described 



