PKOCEEDINGb OF SOCIETIES. 125 



which recedes from the type by its united styles ; and 7, TofieldiecB, 

 with a locuhcidal capsule, anthers slit down the edge or face, and 

 equitant distichous leaves. This sub-order includes several genera 

 which recede in a striking manner from the general Liliaceous type ; 

 as for instance, Heivardia, which connects Liliacea, with IridacecB; 

 Petrosavia, a saprophyte with three apocarpous carpels ; and Scoliopus, 

 with a unilocular ovary and three parietal placentas. In geograph- 

 ical dispersion ColchicacecB agree completely with the true LiliacecE, 

 as they enter, broadly speaking, into all the floras of which 

 the order as a whole forms an element. The three aberrant tribes 

 of LiliacecE are ConantherecB, a connecting-link between LiliacecB and 

 AmaryllidacecEy marked by its partially inferior ovary, and anthers 

 dehiscing by terminal pores ; LiriopecB, and GilliesiecB. Liriope is an 

 older name for Ophiopogon. These two last sub-orders contain 

 genera which recede widely from the Liliaceous type, and others 

 which bridge over the interval between the extreme form and 

 the ordinary Lilies; of GilliesiecB, which are almost exclusively 

 Chilian, we now know seven genera ; of LiriopecB three. 



Febnuiry, 6, 1879.— Prof. Allman, F.E.S., President, in the 

 chah*. — Mr. J. E. Jackson, in illustration of the paper by A. Braun 

 recently translated in the pages of this Journal, exhibited a 

 collection of fruits, seeds, &c., from the tombs of ancient Thebes, 

 sent to the Kew Museum by Mr. Consul Calvert, of Alexandria. 

 Tn this collection were the fruits oiHijphcBne Argun, formerly thought 

 to be a nutmeg, in consequence of its ruminated albumen. Mr. 

 Jackson considered the juniper berries in the collection to be those 

 of Jimijje}'us jjJicenicea, and not of J. excelsa. A flat cake had 

 been found to be composed of the fruit of Hyj^hane thebaica, the 

 Doum Palm ; and the dark- coloured contents of a small flask, on 

 examination, had proved to be olive oil. — Mr. J. Gr. Baker 

 showed some dried specimens and a living bulb of Buphane toxicaria 

 from Kew. This furnishes one of the principal ingredients of the 

 poison with which the Bushmen tip their arrows, and it is 

 remarkable structm-ally for the very numerous tunics of its bulb. 

 The plant has been long known and often imported, but has only 

 flowered in this country very rarely. Eecent travellers have much 

 extended its known geographical range, which reaches from the 

 central Cape Karoo to Angola and Lake Tanganika. Sir C. W. 

 Strickland mentioned that he had been successful in flowering the 

 plant last year, and explained his plan of treating it. — Mr. 

 Thiselton Dyer showed specimens of and drew attention to the 

 more important features of a new fodder grass, Euchlana hunirians ; 

 [since figured in the ' Botanical Magazine ' for March, tab. 641 4.] — 

 He also exhibited instruments used for weaving the fibre of Curcidigo 

 latifolia by the natives of Borneo. — Mr. Thos. Christy drew 

 attention to a sample of Tea grown in Natal, and to a bottle 

 containing the milky juice of LandoJplda as fi-eshly drawn from the 

 tree. — The Eev. Gr. Henslow passed round for examination a 

 specimen of a female Misletoe bearing male shoots. The opinion 

 of the botanists present was that it was an androgynous condition, 

 rather than a male parasitic on a female plant, as supposed by Mr. 



