JAT/rSEXS SOCIETY OF LOXDOX. 3 



The Rev. T. R. R. Stebbixg exhibited Mr. J. G. Filter's Chart 

 of the Metric System, published by the Decimal Associatioa. He 

 strougly commended the simplicity and clearness with which the 

 system was presented by this graphic method, needing so few 

 words of textual ex|)lanation. At the same time he thought that 

 some of the technical terms were open to objection either in 

 regard to spelling or formation. We have long had in English 

 the word meter for measurements quite distinct from those of the 

 comparatively recent French metre and millimetre. These and 

 similar words, therefore, now to be borrowed from the French, 

 should preferably I'etain their French terminations, following the 

 English (though not the A.merican) usage in such words as centre. 

 Further, the words hectogram, hectometer, hectoliter, were unfor- 

 tunate and misleading, since they appear to come from the Greek 

 eKTos, meaning "the sixth," whereas their real connection is with 

 €KaTuv, meaning " a hundred," so that they ought to be respectively 

 Tiecatoc/rara, hecatometre, hecatolitre. Are, for 100 square metres as 

 the unit of surface measure, is not a particularly welcome addition 

 to the English language, and hectare, for 100 ares, ought to be 

 either hecatare or hecatoatare. Still, defects in the terminology 

 should not divert attention from the importance of the system 

 itself and the desirability that students of science should be fully 

 acquainted with its character and merits. 



Dr. Rendle made some brief remarks on the Chart. 



On behalf of Mr. John Cryer, of Shipley, the General Secretary 

 exhibited a series of 21 specimens of Polygula amarella, Crantz, 

 selected to show its wide range of form under various conditions. 

 The species was discovered at Grassington in May 1902, and spe- 

 cimens were shown at the General Meeting, 4th December, 1902. 

 In a communication which was sent with the plants, Mr. Cryer 

 states that this species, which grows on the Great Scar Limestone, 

 in the West Riding of Yorkshu'e, was to be seen the past season 

 in great abundance over a large area. It could be fouud iu many 

 situations and at various altitudes from Sweet Side, Grassington, 

 to Buckden Pike, a distance of about nine miles as the crow flies ; 

 from Buckden Pike to Arncliffe, four and a half miles; from 

 Arncliffe to Gordale, live and a half miles ; and from Gordale 

 through Bordley to Sky Home, four miles. These districts 

 embrace an area, as measured on the Ordnance Map, of about 

 thirty-six square miles. 



The first six specimens shown were from three to eight inches 

 high, from an elevation of 75u feet ; as the elevation increased, the 

 height diminished, till the plant became less than one inch high. 



Blue-flowered specimens were found well distributed over the 

 whole area ; \vhite-flowered specimens aere unequally distributed ; 

 rose-coloui*ed plants were only found in one locality, but there it 

 was locally abundant. Spatliulate rosettes of root-leaves are the 

 winter state of the plant. 



One characteristic of Polygala amarella is, that it can grow 



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