159 



LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



March 21, 1889. — Mr. Carrutliers, F.R.S., President, in the 

 chair. — Messrs. H. B. Hewetson, W. Narramore, W. T. Rabbits, 

 and M. B. Shxter were elected Fellows. — Mr. W. B. Hemsley 

 furnished a Report on the Botanical Collections made on Christmas 

 Island during the Voyage of the ' Egeria.' This included a complete 

 list of the iDlants collected, with remarks on their general distri- 

 bution, the author being of opinion that the flora of this island, 

 which lies about 200 miles south of the western end of Java, was 

 more nearly related to that of the Malayan Archipelago than to 

 that of Australia. Mr. C. B. Clarke, commenting on the author's 

 observations on the buttresses of trees, described some remarkable 

 instances which he had seen of this singular mode of growth. Mr. 

 J. G. Baker, referring to the ferns which had been collected, noticed 

 their affinities and distribution. Mr. R. A. Rolfe commented on 

 three species of orchids which had been brought home by this 

 expedition, all of which were new. Mr. Thiselton Dyer, referring 

 to Mr. Lister's Report to the British Association on the zoological 

 collections from this island, in which it was stated that the character 

 of the avifauna was Australian, considered that it was not borne 

 out by an examination of the flora, which was decidedly Malayan. — 

 A paper was then read by Mr. R. A. Rolfe, ' On the Sexual Forms 

 of Catasetum, with special reference to the researches of Darwin and 

 others.' The purport of Darwin's paper (Journ. Linn. Soc. 1862) 

 was to show that Catasetum tridentatum had been seen by Schom- 

 burgk to produce three difterent kinds of flowers, belonging to the 

 same number of supposed genera all on the same plant, and that 

 the three represeuted respectively the male, female, and hermaph- 

 rodite states of the species. Mr. Rolfe showed that Schomburgk's 

 remarks applied to two distinct species, C. tridentatum and C. 

 barhatum, the females of which resembled each other so closely that 

 they were thought to be one and the same, namely, Monacanthus 

 viridis. Neither of these, however, belonged to the true plant of 

 that name, which was really the female of another species, viz., C. 

 cernuum — a fact hitherto unsuspected. The key of the situation was 

 that the females of several species resembled each other very closely, 

 and to three of them the name Monacanthus viridis had been applied. 

 — A paper by Mr. MacOwan, ' On some new Cape Plants.' was read. 



Aj^ril 4. — Mr. Carrutliers, F.R.S., President, in the chair. — 

 Mr. A. C. Lowe was admitted a Fellow of the Society, and Messrs. 

 T. W. Cowan and Rupert Valentin were elected. — Mr. D. Morris 

 exhibited a specimen of the hymenopterous insect, Eulcena cayen- 

 ensis, concerned in the fertilization of (hnjantlies macrantha (see 

 Criiger, Journ. Linn. Soc. viii. 129), and obtained from Mr. Hart, 

 of Trinidad. Referring to the illustrations of the structure of the 

 flowers given in the ' Giirdeners' Chronicle' (xvii. 1882, 593, and 

 xxiii, 1885, 145), Mr. Morris explained the process carried out by 

 the insects, chiefly bees, in removing the pollinia, and subsequently 

 attaching them on the stigma. The observations of Criiger had 

 been verified by Mr. Hart in the Botanic Cnirdens, Trinidad. — Sir 

 Edward Fry exhibited and made some instructive remarks on a 



