190 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Fungus by the Samoans,' by the Rev. Thos. Powell. Specimens 

 of the fungus had been forwarded to the Rev. Mr. Berkeley for 

 identification. The natives give the name "Limamea" to it. It 

 destroys then- Bread-fruit trees and the Chesnut {Inocarpus edulis), 

 though not confined to them. They believe that an antidote to its 

 ravages exists in the liliaceoLus plant, Crinwii asiaticum, which they 

 plant between the trees liable to be afiected. 



April 18. — Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the 

 chair. — The following gentlemen were elected Fellows of the 

 Society :— Rev. A. A. Harland, M.A. ; Rev. J.J. Muir, M.A. ; 

 W. G. Piper, Esq. ; and Frederick Townseiid, Esq., M.A. — The 

 following botanical paper was read : — ' On the Mechanism for the 

 Fertilization oi Meijenia erecta, Benth.,' by R. Irwin Lynch. This 

 West African Acanthaceous shrub has a funnel-shaped corolla, 

 with hauy anthers midway in the tube, then- backs pressed 

 against the wall. The longer, slender, flexible style has its double- 

 lipped stigma so formed and i^laced that pollen, to be effective, 

 must touch the tubular lip. Insects, alighting and entering towards 

 the nectar at the bottom of the flower, on their retui-n so move the 

 lever-lip of the stigma as to produce XDollenization. 



2Iar/ 2. — W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair. 

 — The following gentlemen were elected Fellows of the Society : — 

 M. Cesar Chambre, Broad Street, City; and Thos. Comber, Esq., 

 Redcliffe, Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire. The Foreign Members 

 elected by ballot to fill the vacancies of those deceased during last 

 year were : — Teodoro Caruel, Professor of Botany and Director of 

 the Botanic Garden, Pisa ; Dr. Ernest Cosson, of Paris ; Dr. George 

 Engelmann, of St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.; Dr. Edouard Fenzl, 

 Professor of Botany at the University and Director of the Botanic 

 Garden at Vienna ; and Dr. Julius Sachs, Professor of Botany at 

 the University and Director of the Botanic Gardens, Wiirzburg. 

 — Mr. John R. Jackson exhibited a series of dried mounted speci- 

 mens illustrating the peculiarities of Yucca haccata, Torrey. These 

 were the fruits, leaves, and portions of the stem ; the latter used 

 as a substitute for soap by the inhabitants of Mexico. The plant 

 in question extends from Southern Colorado far into Mexico. In 

 the north it is acaulescent ; southward it forms a trunk up to ten 

 feet high. The fruit, which in the other Yuccas is ca^DSular, is 

 here a dark purple berr3^ It is eaten when fresh, both by Whites 

 and Indians, and cured by the latter for winter provision. The 

 plant is sometimes called the Rocky Mountain Banana (see 

 Engelmann's Monograph of the genus). — The following papers 

 were read : — * On Manqx't, a genus of the SiiuaruhacciE,' by John 

 Miers, Esq., F.R.S. This genus is founded upon a curious fruit 

 observed by the author in the Brazilian productions contributed 

 to the Paris Exhibition of 1857, partly under his charge, and 

 ticketed ' Marupd on Simraroiiba.' In the same collection was also 

 a specimen of wood, likewise from Para, named ' Marupd ou Pdo 

 Pomho.' The fruit in question offers a resemblance to that of 

 Samadera indica, described and figured by Gaertner, though a trifle 

 smaller, but they differ in their external covering : in Gaertner's 



