84 



In passing along, a road-side heap of water-worn, and other fragments of 

 stone, attracted the attention of the President and the Rev. W. S. Symonds ; 

 and in it the President discovered (we believe in Downton limestone) a small 

 slab, full of fine specimens of the Lingula, a fine Serpulites, &c. 



At 5 p.m. the members assembled to dine at the Oxford Arms Hotel. The 

 dinner was an excellent one in every respect, the Rev. T. T. Lewis occupied the 

 chair, and there were present also the Rev. W. S. Symonds, Rev. R. Holmes, 

 Rev. J. H. Barker, Rev. W. H. Thackwell, Mr. Edward Davies, Mr. Lingwood, 

 Mr. E. H. Griffiths, Mr. Wheatley, Mr. Lingen, Mr. Cam, Dr. G. H. Marshall, 

 Mr. Blakeley, Mr, Suter, Mr. \V. Blashill, Junr., Mr. A. Thompson, Mr. 

 Edmunds. 



Upon the removal of the cloth, the Chairman gave the health of the Queen 

 and the Royal Family, which was drunk with all due honour. The Chairman 

 then observed that, as the members had mostly considerable distances to go in 

 order to reach their homes, he would at once proceed to the business of the 

 meeting. Ho would, therefore, at once call upon Mr. Flavell Edmunds to read 

 a paper. 



Mr. Edmunds rose and said that he had thrown together a few thoughts on a 

 department of botany which he had felt to be a very interesting one ; but he had 

 done so, not because he felt tliat he could lay before the meeting much, if any- 

 thing, that was particularly novel, but rather in the hope that he should thereby 

 provoke a conversation, and that thus the members might be all benefited. He 

 then proceeded to read the following paper on 



COLOUR IN PLANTS: ITS CAUSES AND DISTRIBUTION. 



By Flavell Edmunds. 



The beauty of the vegetable kingdom, constituting as it does its most promi- 

 nent characteristic, seems to have been designed by the great Artificer specially 

 to attract the notice of man. Hence to the mind of the child, the beauty of a 

 flower is an attraction as early as it is unfailing ; and to the mass of mankind, 

 who in the study of nature seldom pass beyond the portals, the child's love of 

 flowers remains to the latest period of life. In the pageants and pomps which 

 delight the multitude, no less than in the decorations of the great and wealthy, 

 flowers still occupy the place of honour. The crown of the monarch, and the 

 rustic's maypole ; the ornaments of the bride, and the decorations of the coffin ; 

 the wreath of the conqueror, and the chaplet of the bard ; alike owe their beauty 

 to the use of the imitation of flowers. The vegetable kingdom supplies to oratory 

 the finest illustrations ; to poetry, its most beautiful imagery. When we come 

 to analyse this universal feeling, we find it to consist in most cases of a mere per- 

 ception of the hues which adorn vegetation. The soft green of the sward, the 

 bright colours of the flowers, and the varying tints of the leaves, are caught by 

 the least instructed eye. To the thoughtful enquirer it seems (jbvious that this 



