Proceedings, gg 



Mr Mennell exhibited a fine series of specimens illustrating 

 the Flora of the Great North-West. 



Evening Meeting.— Febkuaby 20th, 1885. 

 The company of young persons was specially invited, and 

 about ninety of these were present. 



Mr. H. W. Gilbert read a paper on ' How and Why Animals 

 Differ, from which the following are extracts :— 



Living things are divided into two great kingdoms— the 

 Ammal Kingdom and the Vegetable Kingdom. It may seem 

 strange, but it is by no means an easy matter to distinguish 

 between animals and vegetables. If anyone asked us what 

 was the difference between animals and vegetables, we might 

 answer, as the most obvious distinction that occurred to us 

 " Oh! an animal can move, a vegetable cannot"; and this 

 would not be a bad way of roughly distinguishmg between the 

 two kingdoms. But, strictly speaking, this definition would 

 be of very httle use to a naturahst, for I might mention 

 several plants which can move, although they cannot move 

 from place to place-for instance, the Sundew and the Sensi- 

 tive Plant. But these we can see are plants by their ordhiary 

 characters, such as the possession of leaves and roots. 



But here I have drawn a plant which is able to move from 

 place to place. It is found m stagnant water and mud and 

 IS named Protococcus. It is provided with a pan- of little 

 whips, called cilia, because they are like the hairs of eye- 

 lashes (Lat. ciUmn), and it is by the movement of these cHia 

 to and fro that the Protococcus is lashed along. If you have 

 a drop of water containing these little vegetables on the shp 

 of the microscope, you can see them rushing in all directions 

 at a great rate. The most wonderful thing is that we do not 

 know what makes the cHia move, for they are certainly not 

 put m motion by muscles, like the limbs of an animal 



But whatever differences may exist between animals and 

 vegetables, there is one property common to both for a laree 

 portion of their lives, and that is the property of increasing 



