156 rEOCEEDlNGS OK SOCIETIES. 



with regard to moisture, heat, and dryness. — " On the Lichens of 

 Antarctic America collected by Dr. R. 0. Cunningham during the 

 Voyage of H.M.S. Nassau, 1867-9," by the llev. J. M. Ororabie. 

 The author describes ninety-seven species, of which twenty-four are 

 new. A new genus Endocena is inchided. — The discussion on the 

 Potato-fungus was continued by Mr. Carrutliors restating the points 

 in which De Bary differed from Mr. W. G. Smith. — The llev. M. J. 

 Berkeley objected to the style of De Bary's criticisms, and considered 

 that Smith had fully proved the sexual congress of the bodies on the 

 different-sized and separate mycelia and considered by him antlieridia 

 and oogonia. — Mr. W. G. Smith read a long defence of his position, 

 and said that Sadebeck's recent observations on Pi/thimn Equiseti 

 supported his own as to the two sorts of mycelial threads ; he also 

 considered that De Bary had misapprehended Montague's Artotrogus. 

 — Mr. Kenny thought the subject still unsettled, but considered that 

 De Bary had made out his case so far as he had gone, and that Smith's 

 drawings were less representations of actual microscopic specimens 

 than diagrams expressing the net result of a number of observations ; 

 he pointed out that till Mr. Smith had grown his rt-sting-spores their 

 nature must remain uncertain, and expressed his own opinion in 

 favour of their being the same Pijthiuin as he had himself noticed. 

 — Mr. Thiseltou Dyer suggested clearing the field of discussion by 

 eliminating the obscure Artotrogus altogether, its structure with 

 oospores intercalated in the threads being clearly different from the 

 Peronosporem — Mr. Carruthers, in reply, defended De Bary from the 

 charges of hypercriticism. 



April 6th. — Prof. J. G. Allman, President, in the chair. — Mr. 

 Holmes exhibited living specimens of some rare Mosses collected by 

 himself in Kent. Anacalgpta cccspitosa was found on a damp, bare 

 spot on a chalky declivity near Otford ; Gymnoitomum tortile grew 

 with it. Seligeria paucijlora has only been reported from Sussex, 

 Yorkshire, and Surrey ; it was found in a wood near Diinton Green, 

 also near Wrotham, Dartford, and Folkestone. Ifi/pnum silesiaciim is 

 from rotten stumps of Castanea vesca in Abbey Wood, where it was 

 found by Mitten thirty-two years ago ; Dicramcm montanum and D. 

 flagellare occur in the same locality. — Mr. Holmes also showed the 

 root and foliage of the " Drias '' of Morocco, which had been deter- 

 mined to be Thapi^ia garganica, var. Silphium, of De CandoUe, a plant of 

 interest from being considered by some botanists to have been the 

 celebrated Silphium of ancient Cyrenaica. Tlie papers read were all 

 zoological. 



April 20th. — G. Bentham, Esq., Vice-President, in the chair. The 

 following communications were read: — *' On a specimen of Zanzibar 

 Copal containing a leaf," by Dr. Kirk. This specimen, which was 

 exhibited, contained a perfect leaf with its two leaflets of the Trachij- 

 lohium of Western Africa, and seemed to show conclusively that the 

 resin was derived from the existing species. — " On the African species 

 of the genus Cojf'ca,'^ by W. P. Hiern. The author describes fifteen 

 species, eight of which are new. The Liberian or Monrovian Coffee, 

 which has, from the flowers not having been seen, been considered 

 a variety of C. arabira, is made a distinct species, and described 

 under the name C. lihcrica. The ordinary Coffee, C. arahica, is 



