PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 61 



in tombs of the Ming dynasty, three hundred years old, and has 

 usually been supposed to be teak. The tree is still botanically 

 indeterminate, but it probably belongs to LauracecB, and the leaves 

 closely agree with those of Phcebe imllida. — Mr. Thiselton Dyer also 

 exhibited and made some remarks on a seed of Kntada scandens, 

 and one possibly belonging to Cyathocalyx Maingayi, an Anonaceous 

 plant, which were found in the ccecum of the lihinoceros sumatrensis 

 from Chittagong which died in the Zoological Gardens, Eegent's 

 Park. Fruits of Oncocarjms vitiensis were likewise shown, these 

 having been obtained from the crop of a fruit-pigeon [Cavjwjjhaga 

 latrans) from Fiji. — Mr. Thiselton Dyer also exhibited part of a 

 fruit-head of a species of Pandanus from India, formmg a brush, of 

 which the fibrous tissue of the drupes constituted the bristles, said 

 to be used to scrape cloth, like the Teazle. — Mr. J. Eliot Howard 

 brought before the meeting living examples of the flowers and foliage 

 of Cincho7ia Calisaya var. Josephiana, and C. Calisaya var. anglica 

 (hybrid), grown in his garden at Tottenham. — Mr. M. Moggridge 

 read a note containing the record of his having met with Daheocia 

 polifolia growing wild on AVallis Down, near Bournemouth, Hants, 

 duruig last summer. Doubtless this has been here accidentally 

 introduced, but it is interestmg as apparently being well established.''' 

 — The Secretary read a paper by Dr. I. Bailey Balfour, entitled 

 " Observations on the Genus Fandamis, with an enumeration of all 

 species described or named m books, herbaria, and nurserymen's 

 catalogues ; together with their synonymy and native countries, as 

 far as these have been ascertained." Few famihes of plants present 

 more difficulties of study and elucidation than the Fandanacea. 

 These difficulties exist by reason of the variability of the species, 

 the barriers in the way of prociuiug the male flowers, and the feeble 

 characters borne by the leaves, while the fi*uit, after di'jdng, in a great 

 measm'e loses its distinctive features, and therefore its value as a 

 means of comparison, &c. The Screw-pmes had attracted the 

 notice of the early voyagers, but their descriptions are by no means 

 good, or enable identification to be made with certainty. To 

 Eumphius we owe the name of Pandanus, though his account and 

 figm-es are poor compared with those of Rheede of a century previous. 

 Linnaeus, though indicatmg a plant under the designation Bromelia 

 sylvestris omitted nevertheless the genus Pandanus, an omission 

 afterwards rectified by his son. Afterwards, as knowledge of species 

 increased, many new genera were unnecessarily introduced, which 

 Dr. Balfour, from his studies and observation, is inclined to reject ; 

 even Brongniart's New Caledonia genera do not claim acceptance. 

 Pandamis runs over a wide expanse of longitude, stretching as it does 

 from the East African coast through the Mascarene Islands, India, 

 the Indian Archipelago, Australia, as far eastward as the Sandwich 

 Islands. The Eastern Archipelago and the Mascarenes, Dr. Balfour 

 regards as centres whose s^^ecies of Pandanus do not commingle. 

 The species of the Mascarene area have frequently red spines on 



* This Heath has been already recorded from Bournemouth, and also from 

 Southampton. (See Journ. Bot. 1872, p. 277). 



