64 LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



the Flora of Shetland ' (Glyceria distcms, var. j^rostrata, n. var.). — 

 J. F. Grant & Arthur Bennett, * Flora of Caithness.' — G. C. Druce, 

 * Plants of Peebleshh-e.' 



LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



January 17, 1889. — Mr. W. Carruthers, F.K.S., President, in 

 the chair. — The following were elected Fellows : J. E. Green, M.A., 

 Prof. Botany, Pharmaceutical Society; E. J. Harvey Gibson, M.A., 

 Lecturer Botany, Univ. Coll., Liverpool; James W. White, of 

 Chfton, Bristol ; and Herbert Stone, of Handsworth, Bu'mingham. 

 — On behalf of M. Buysman, of Middleburg, Mr. B. D. Jackson 

 exhibited a series of careful dissections of Nymphaa carulea collected 

 by Dr. Schweinfurth in Egypt. — Mr. D. Morris exhibited specimens 

 of drift fruit from Jamaica, where he had collected no less than 

 thirty-five different kinds brought by the Gulf Stream from the 

 mouths of the Orinoco and Amazon. Although the species exhibited 

 had not been determined with certainty, it was believed to be 

 probably Humiria bahamifera (the flower of which is figured by 

 Eichler, 'Flora Brasiliensis,' vol. xii. pt. 2, 430, pi. xcii. fig. 1), 

 but the fruit undescribed. It was commonly known in French 

 Guiana as Bois rouge, and from it was obtained a gum used 

 medicinally and burnt as incense. — Mr. T. Christy exhibited a 

 material felted from Manilla hemp, and waterproofed, very strong 

 and light, and particularly useful for surgical bandages, for which 

 purpose it was highly recommended by army surgeons. — Mr. F. 

 Crisp exhibited some specimens of agate so curiously marked as to 

 lead to the erroneous supposition that they enclosed fossil insects 

 and Crustacea. — A paper was then read by Mr. J. G. Tepper, *' On 

 the Natural History of the Kangaroo Island Grass Tree, Xanthor- 

 rhcea Tateana.'" This tree grows abundantly in Kangaroo Island, 

 South Australia, in poor, gravelly and sandy soil, intermixed 

 with ferruginous concretions, and attains a height of from six 

 to fourteen feet, with a diameter of six to eighteen inches, 

 and a floral spike of from ten to nineteen feet. It is thus 

 a most conspicuous plant, and lends a peculiarly weird aspect 

 to the country it occupies. Its rate of growth is described as 

 very slow, old settlers having remarked but little change in 

 individual trees after thirty years' observation. The most remark- 

 able feature in the structure of the stem is the formation of a dense 

 ligneous central core immediately above and connected with the 

 roots, exhibiting numerous annular zones, traversed by transverse 

 (medullary) fibres. The flowers are borne in a dense spike upon a 

 smooth peduncle. Individually they are inconspicuous, of a whitish 

 colour, and develop a strong odour and abundant nectar during the 

 warmer part of the day, when they are visited and fertilised by 

 hymeuopterous insects, the most remarkable being a large metallic- 

 green Carpenter Bee (Xylocapa), which tunnels out cells m the dead 

 flower-stalks. 



