xxiv PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



Mr. A. Murray exhibited some remarkable specimens of sili- 

 cified wood from N.W. America, one of which had a peculiar 

 charred appearance. 



Professor Thiselton Dyer remarked that Mr. Murray's speci- 

 mens were extremely similar to the sHicified wood of Lough 

 Neagh ( Cwpressoxylon FritcTiardi). The specimens with a deeply 

 discoloured interior, he thought, had not necessarily undergone 

 any thing like charring from fire, but had probably been parti- 

 ally converted into lignite by slow decay before silicification. 

 The Lough Neagh wood was attributed to the Miocene ; but the 

 fragments were found imbedded, like Mr. Murray's specimens, in 

 a clay, and this was of late Tertiary age. 



Professor Busk compared the substance to jet, and described a 

 bed of lignite in the north of France in which a similar phenome- 

 non was presented, the interior part of the wood being converted 

 into charcoal, while the exterior part retained its original condition. 



Mr. J. Gr. Baker exhibited specimens from the Kew Herbarium 

 of Clieilantlies farinosa and Dalhousiw. The fern described by 

 Sir "William Hooker as C. DalJiousice was gathered in the Hima- 

 layas by Lady Dalhousie, and precisely resembles the well-known 

 G. farinosa in every respect except the absence of the waxy cover- 

 ing on the back of the frond. Specimens have since been found 

 intermediate in character ; and Mr. Baker now exhibited some 

 from New Granada agreeing precisely with the Himalayan form, 

 ■which confirm the view that G. Dalhousice can no longer be main- 

 tained as a distinct species. 



Professor Thiselton Dyer exhibited, from the Kew Museum, a 

 fine series of the fruits of various species of Dipterocarpus and also 

 of Dryohalanops aromatica, Gsertn. fil., together with an unfolded 

 embryo of the latter plant. The remarkable wings possessed 

 by the fruits of the Dipterocarpeae seemed to be adapted to the 

 occasional transport of the fruits by strong gusts of wind. It 

 was, however, stated by Indian observers that the seeds very 

 rapidly lost their capacity for germination. 



Dr. Cleghorn agreed that this was the case, and that in India 

 the Sal {Shorea rohustd) could not be distributed to places at any 

 distance from the forests by means of its seeds. The reason 

 appeared to be that germination generally commenced before the 

 fruits fell from the trees. 



