LIXNEAN SOCIETY OF LOFDOX. 7 



Mr. Charles Sillem, and Mr. Charles Worster-Drougbt, B.A. 

 (Cantab.), were elected Fellows, and Mr. Oswald Arthur Sayce an 

 Associate. 



On behalf of Dr. 11. Dki>'Kwater, F.R.S.E., there were ex- 

 hibited 25 drawings in body-colour on dark backgrounds, of wild 

 flowers, chiefly from Wrexham. 



Mr. Clement Reid, F.R.S., F.L.S., exhibited photographs on 

 the screen of fruits and seeds of some of the plants introduced by 

 the Romans into Britain. The remains have been collected princi- 

 pally from disused Roman wells, employed subsequently as rubbish 

 pits, and often sealed up under Roman pavements of later date. 

 The principal sources have been Roman Silchester, Caerwent, 

 London, and Pevensey ; and to a large extent the collections have 

 been made by Mr. A. H. Lyell, who has been most careful to 

 reject any deposit of doubtful or later date. 



The fruits and seeds exhibited belong to pea, bean, fig, grape, 

 mulberry, medlar (a very small variety), apple, cherries (probably 

 both black and red), sloe, bullace (wild and cultivated), damson, a 

 larger plum like the '• black plum" of Cornwall, Portugal laurel, 

 black and white mustard, turnip? fennel, dill, coriander, aleianders, 

 ChcerophyUum aureum (a casual, perhaps introduced with packing- 

 case rubbish from France, and not grown in Britain), belladonna, 

 henbane, field poppies {Fajxtver lihceas, P. Argemone), the opium 

 poppy (seeds of this were probably used, as in Rome, scattered on 

 loaves of bread), greater celandine, corn-cockle, white campion, 

 bladder campion, penny cress, sow-thistle, ox-eye daisy, Cheno- 

 podium urbicum and C. murale, and leaves of box. Box-leaves 

 have been found in three different rubbish-pits in Roman Sil- 

 chester ; the branches may have been used for wreaths, as the 

 nearest native substitute for the Italian myrtle. 



The plants thus far found do not suggest any direct shipping 

 trade with the Mediterranean. The peach, apricot, almond, and 

 other fruits that will only ripen south of Britain are missing. 

 The fruits and spices found are only such as can be grown com- 

 mercially in Britain at the present day, and this makes it probable 

 that the abundant fig and grape seeds belong to fruit grown in 

 this country and not imported in a dried state. Mulberries do 

 not travel well and are scarcely ever dried; they must have been 

 grown at Silchester. 



Mr. Lvell (visitor), Lt.-Col. Prain, Mr. G^. C. Druce, Mr. L. A. 

 Boodle, the Rev. J. Gerard, Mr. E. M. Holmes, Mr. E. G. Baker, 

 and the President took part in the discussion which followed, and 

 Mr. Reid briefly replied. 



Mr. G. Clakidge Druce, F.L.S., exhibited specimens of (a) 

 Zannichellia gibberosa, Reichb., new to Britain, from Eye Green, 

 Northants; and (6) Orchis maculata var. O'Kellyi, Druce, from 

 Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, recently described in ' The Irish Natu- 

 ralist.' 



