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Ordinary Meeting, April 1st, 1862. 

 J. P. Joule, LL.D., F.E-.S., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. David Joy was elected an Ordinary Member of the 

 Society. 



Mr. Frederick N. Dyer and Mr. Samuel Cottam were 

 appointed Auditors of the Treasurer's accounts for the present 

 Session. 



A letter from Dr. Fairbairn, F.R.S., was read, enclosing 

 a dried specimen of a fibrous bulb which he had received 

 from Mr. James Niven, of Jeffrey's Bay, Human's Dorp 

 District, Cape of Good Hope. In a letter, dated 17th 

 February, 1863, Mr. Niven says, ^^I enclose a leaf and some 

 of the fibre of a very fibrous wild bulb, very plentiful in this 

 country, and, if of any commercial value, a large quantity in 

 the leaf could be exported annually. The sample is not a fair 

 one, as the bulb is not matured at this season, and has only its 

 outermost leaf dry. I think the fibre is stronger in the 

 matured bulb. I do not know its botanical name. In the 

 Dutch of the country it is called Maager-man boll (Slender- 

 man bulb), probably from its tall and slender flower stem, 

 which sometimes attains the height of six feet. The bulb 

 resembles an onion." 



Mr. BiNNEY, after examining the specimen, said that it 

 had always appeared to him most strange for a large manu- 

 facturing town like Manchester to be without a museum, in 

 which should be deposited all the new raw products, whether 

 of animal, vegetable, or mineral origin, that were from tim.e 

 to time discovered. At the present time, when public atten- 

 tion was directed to the supply of cotton, the want of such a 

 collection was peculiarly felt. If the Chamber of Commerce 

 Proceedings— Lit. & Phil. Society— No. 14.— Session 1861—62. 



