the nature of the fossil in question, showing how previileut 

 animals of that character were about the time of the 

 Silurian epoch, and how few and small were the representatives 

 at the i^resent day. 



Also a small bnt interesting collection of butterflies 

 and moths from the Amoor river district, in N.E. Asia. 

 These were placed side by side with species from our own 

 country to show how great a similarity one bore to the other, 

 although the countries were so far apart. Some of the species 

 appear to be perfectly identical with the British ones. 



Mr. Charles Green brought for exhibition some 

 telegraph wire, telegraph earthenware sockets, and wood of 

 telegraph posts, to show the effect of a discharge of electric 

 fluid which took place durmg a thundertsorm at Partridge 

 Green, near Henfield, Sussex, last June. The wire was iu 

 places reduced to powder, and the wires then gave way; 

 the sockets were split into several fragments; and the 

 telegraph post adjoining riven into innumerable shreds as 

 fine as a crow-quill. The specimens were presented to the 

 club by Mr. Green. 



16tk, Ifovember, 1871. This being an open meetuig, 

 Mr. J. G. Baker, of the Royal Herbariimi, Kew, attended 

 to deliver an address on " The Weeds of Cultivation." He 

 introduced the subject by explaining briefly the office v/hich 

 the different parts of a plant perform iu nourishing and 

 reproducing it; dwelling specially upon the importance of 

 the difference between true roots (which branch irregularly 

 and do not produce buds at their nodes ;) and underground 

 developemeut of stem, such as are called creeping roots in 

 popular language, (which produce buds if broken in pieces 

 by the spade or plough.) Plants imlike animals may be re-pro- 

 duced in two ways, one by means of buds, and the other by 

 seeds, so that sometimes the life of a species is carried on for a 



