xlii PROCEEDINGS, 



or anything else. There was one butterfly, in the island of Ehodes, 

 with at least a score of bees and wasps, perfectly easy to be recog- 

 nized and separated the one from the other. The most interesting 

 group of the whole lot was one of about forty dogs, some few of 

 which might be mythical, some apparently wild, but it showed 

 that artificial selection had done a great deal at that date for the 

 establishment of varieties, and the most notable were the boar- 

 hound, the deer-hound, the grey-hound, and the terrier. There 

 was no spaniel, but on a coin of Cumte, a city near the Bay of 

 Naples celebrated for its luxury, unexampled in these days, was 

 the verisimilitude of a poodle. Most of the dogs corresponded 

 with those of the present day. The osprey, the vulture, the golden 

 eagle, several owls, and other birds were to be recognized. The 

 ostrich was clearly delineated on a later Byzantine coin, with all 

 its characteristic points perfect, even the two toes, which often 

 escape the observation of draughtsmen who are not naturalists. But 

 the most perfect of all representations were the Cretan wild goat 

 and the swan of many cities, notably Camarina. The swan 

 appeared in the issue of about a dozen mints, as perfect 

 a portraiture of a natural -history object as one would like to 

 see in illustration of a work of that science. 



2. "On the Destruction of an Elm-Tree by Fungi at St. Albans." 

 By George Abbey. Communicated by A. E. Gibbs, E.L.S., F.E.S. 

 {Transactions, Vol. IX, p. 129.) 



Mr. Neele alluded to the splendid elm-trees at the residence 

 known as " The Elms " in Watford. 



Mr. Vaughan Bobeets said that he had measured the two trees 

 in fi'ont of that hoixse, and the circumference a foot from the 

 ground was from 18 to 19 feet. The circumference of the tree 

 referred to was 1 2 feet. The size of the tree was not always a proof 

 of age ; it depended upon soil and other circumstances. According 

 to the age assumed for the tree under discussion, 150 years, that of 

 the trees at " The Elms " would be very great. 



The Pkesident remarked that the fact of the house being named 

 from the trees would perhaps show that they were very old. The 

 size no doubt depended greatly upon the kind of elm. 



3. Bepokt on the Conferences of Delegates to the British 

 Association at Liverpool in 1896. By John Hopkinson, E.L.S., 

 r.G.S., E.R.Met.Soc. 



The Conferences were held on the 17th and 22nd of September, 

 the first Conference being devoted to the question of the federation 

 of Natural History Societies, and the second to that of a federal 

 staff for local museums and to the consideration of the work of 

 sectional Committees of the Association. In the absence, from 

 illness, of Mr. W. Whitaker, F.K.S., the Chairman nominated by 

 the Scientific Societies Committee, Dr. J. G. Garson presided at 

 each Conference. Sir John Evans, K.C.B., F.R.S., President-elect 

 of the British Association, was the Hertfordshire Natural History 

 Society's Delegate to the Conferences. 



