1850.] Linnean Society. 105 



of snow. Among the Lecidece, Parmelice and UmbilicaHce, collected 

 by Saussure, Agassiz, and themselves, on the highest localities. Dr. 

 Schlagintweit enumerated Lecidea geographica, L. confluens, Par- 

 melia elegans, P. varia, P. polytropa, Umbilicaria proboscidea (3, cy- 

 lindrica, &c. 



December 17. 



Robert Brown, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Westwood, F.L.S., gave some account of a large wingless 

 Bird, probably new to science, but of which no specimens have yet 

 reached England, observed by Capt. Poole in Lord Howe's Island, 

 in the Southern Pacific Ocean, intermediate between New Holland, 

 Norfolk Island and New Zealand, which has been recently colonized 

 under Capt. Poole's superintendence. The bird was described as re- 

 sembling a Rail. 



Read the conclusion of Mr. Benjamin Clarke's " Memoir on the 

 Position of the Carpels when two and when single, including out- 

 lines of a new Method of Arrangement of the Orders of Exogens, 

 and observations on the structure of Ovaries consisting of a single 

 Carpel." 



In this memoir Mr. Clarke details the results of his observations 

 on the position of single and double carpella in reference to axis, 

 with the view of ascertaining the mode in which the reduction of 

 the carpella from a higher number takes place, and the value of the 

 characters thus obtained in the formation of a natural arrangement 

 of plants. He commences with dicarpous ovaries, in which he ob- 

 serves three different positions in relation to axis : 1st, right and 

 left, resulting generally (as he believes to be shown by an examina- 

 tion of the genus Carex and of certain MalpighiacecE and Euphorbiacece) 

 from the sujDpression of a third and usually posterior carpellum, but 

 occasionally also (as for example in Lonicera, Fortunea, Diosma, and 

 probably Cruciferce) from the abortion of the anterior and posterior 

 carpella of an ovary originally consisting of four divisions ; 2ndly, an- 

 terior and posterior, resulting in Houttuynia cordata from the disap- 

 pearance of one of the lateral carpella and the displacement of the 



