BEPORTS Ob' SOCIETIES OBSERVATIONS. 



81 



^i^prts 0f ^atuim. 



Halifax Naturalists' Society. — The 

 members of this Society made their 

 first Botanical Excursion this sea- 

 son, to Salterhebble, on Tuesday, 

 June 28th, conducted by Mr. Gib- 

 son, V.P. About 170 species of 

 plants were gathered, many of them 

 rare, including two or three species 

 which have not been noticed hitherto 

 in this neighbourhood. On their 

 return to the meeting room Mr. 

 Bates gave an interesting descrip- 

 tion of the rarer species, with remarks 

 on their varied structure and uses. 

 It was resolved that the excursions 

 should be continued and that the 

 Annalist should be furnished with 

 the results, from which a complete 

 list, so far as practicable, should be 

 published at the end of the year. 



Londo7iSociety of Amateur Botanists. 

 — At a meeting held on the 6th inst., 

 at No. 197, Piccadilly, the president, 

 M. C. Cooke, Esq., in the chair, 

 Mr. W. T. Dyer read a paper on 

 " Daphne Mezereum," with especial 

 reference to its re-discovery at High 

 Wycombe, Bucks, a locality for this 

 rare plant which is not given in any 

 of the British Floras. Mr. Harland 

 Coultas then read an interesting pa- 

 per on " The Philosophy of Leaves," 

 illustrated with original drawings, 

 in which he demonstrated that leaves 

 in general have a tendency to pro- 



No. 6, July 15. 



duce leaflets, and that a lobed leaf 

 was but a leaf endeavouring so to 

 do. This theory he termed *' leaflet- 

 genesis ;" it is illustrated in the case 

 Rubus discolor, &g. Specimens of 

 lianunculus ophioglossifolius, and 

 other Jersey plants, were then pre- 

 sented to the Society by one of the 

 members. An excursion to the rail- 

 way cuttings at New Cross, Surrey, 

 was arranged for Saturday, the 9th 

 inst. 



Unio margariiiferus. — As remarked 

 by your querist, Mr. Parke, nearly 

 all the Isle of Man hand-books in- 

 form us that Uiiio margariiiferus is 

 found in the Dhoo, or Black Eiver, 

 near Kirk Braddan, and that it was 

 formerly much sought after on ac- 

 count of the valuable pearls it 

 sometimes contained. Acting upon 

 this information I have, on more 

 than one occasion, searched very 

 diligently for this shell, commencing 

 at Kirk Braddan and following up 

 the course of the river past Union 

 Mills and nearly to its source, but 

 without finding a single specimen. 

 The country people assured me that 

 they used to be found by hundreds ; 

 that pearls had been obtained from 

 them which sold for as much as a 

 guinea each; that they still occurred 

 G 



