1851.] Linnean Society. 127 



March 18. 

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



Dr. Wallich, V.P.L.S., read some extracts from his " Notes on the 

 Germination of 1643 species of Plants," the details of which, with 

 the deductions to be drawn from them, he proposed giving at a 

 future Meetinsr. 



April 1. 



N. Wallich, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Read a continuation of Dr. Buchanan Hamilton's " Commentary 

 on the Ninth Part of Van Rheede's ' Hortus Malabaricus.' " 



April 15. 



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



Mr. Matchwick exhibited a flowering specimen of the Tussack 

 Grass of the Falkland Islands {^Dactylis caspitosa, Forst.), raised 

 from seed in the Orkney Islands by Messrs. Lawson of Edinburgh. 



Mr. Benjamin Kennedy, F.L.S., exhibited a large block of sand- 

 stone, sent to him by his son from the neighbourhood of Swellen- 

 dam. South Africa, and gave the following extract from the letter 

 accompanying it : — 



" The fossil (if fossil it is) which I have sent you is about one-sixth 

 part of one I saw in Kerqua's Kloof, eighteen miles west of this 

 place [Swellendam] . It covered the face of a rock which projected 

 from the side of a mountain at its base. Four branches radiated 

 from a centre. I was in hopes that I should have been able to have 

 got off the whole piece, but unfortunately it split into three pieces 

 when I applied the wedges, having previously drilled holes, which 

 took four men a whole day to do. This stone has been known to 

 the people here for the last twenty-six years. The plane of the 

 fossil was perpendicular, and another piece had split off from the 



