44 



Kovemlcr Ist, 1877. 



Mr. Hayward showeiT a variety of objects under the microscope, 

 ■which he had mounted, among tliem was the Yirginian creeper, 

 which, by a process he had rendered transparent, so that the cells 

 of the plant, containing bundles of raphides in situ were beantifully 

 displayed. 



Mr. Wetherelt exhibited a slide containing embyro oysters, on the 

 economy of which he had made some interesting remarks ; he also 

 exhibited some sections of coal. 



Mr. W. Horsley, of Watling-street, submitted to the inspection 

 of the members a specimen of the locusts, which he had received 

 through bis sou from the Persian Gulf. 



Mrs. Terry, of Burgatc- street, exhibited a beautiful collection of 

 minerals from Grccnsides, Cumberland, and some of the characteris- 

 tic fossils of the lower Greensands. 



Mr. Fidlagar produced from his aquarium some hydra fusca, 

 making a few remarks on their manner of development from ova, 

 and some living fresh water sponge, Avhich he had had under obser- 

 vation for over two months. 



JDecemler 5fh, 1877. 



Captain McDakin showed some fossils from the Bognor beds, 

 belonging to the Lower Tertiaries of the Hampshire basin. One of 

 the shells, a Pectunculis brevirostris, exhibited on being broken 

 open four young oysters, who, long ages ago, after a short period of 

 youthful activity, settled down for life on the gaping shells of this 

 dead bivalve, and from some unknown reason met with a premature 

 death, at a period geologically late but so long ago that geologists, 

 who are accustomed to contemplate as vast periods of time as 

 astronomers are the great distance of the stars, may well fail to 

 understand how great is time, and how important an element it is 

 in the condition of things we see around us. Though but few for- 

 mations occur above the London clay in this country, those few 

 represent a vast period of time. Geographically the Tertiaries 

 occupy two basins, one to the north, known as the London basin, 

 and the other to the south as the Hampshire basin, the former may 

 be roughly traced from the coast near Ipswicli, to Hertford, Eeading, 

 and beyond Newbury, then turning to the south and following a 

 line running eastward passing through Guildford, Croydon, Chat- 

 ham, Sittingbourne, Faversham, to the Eeculvers, and re -appearing 

 from under the alluvium between the Isle of Thanct, and main-land, 

 at IVgwell Bay, extending as near , Canterbury as the Harbledown 

 hills ; the cliffs at Whitstablc and Hcrne Bay affording fine sections 

 of the London clav. The Hampshire Tertiaries fill a trough con- 



