Proceedings. 65 



natural order Compositm are specially liable to it. He once 

 counted 255 flowers on one stem of Primula elatior, and 67 

 flowers on a stalk of Easter Lily. 



Mr. T. Cooper exhibited a fasciated Pansy and a fasciated 

 Chrysanthemum. He also showed plants of two Stapelias, 

 and a Mesembryanthemum allied to M. nuciforme. 



Mr. E. Miller Christy proceeded to describe " The Yellow- 

 stone National Park," which he visited recently. 



The Park is 65 miles long, by 55 broad, and consequently 

 contains about 3575 square miles, or about the area of 

 Lancashire. It is mostly situated in the Territory of Wy- 

 oming, and lies amongst the Eocky Mountains, at an elevation 

 of over 6000 ft. Nothmg was known of the Yellowstone 

 National Park prior to the year 1863. In 1871 the United 

 States Government sent Prof. Hayden to explore the Park, 

 and on his report the Park was nationalized, no settlements 

 being allowed in it. The land would be useless to settlers, 

 as there are frosts every night of the year, and the rock is 

 volcanic. 



It contains more geysers and hot- springs than all the rest 

 of the world. Not even the geysers of New Zealand can 

 compare with those of the Park. Its boiling springs number 

 10,000, and of its geysers fifty spout to a height of from 

 50 to 300 ft. The railway-terminus is at Cinnabar, eight 

 miles to the north of the Mammoth Hot- Springs. These seen 

 from afar look like a gigantic glacier, from the vast snow- 

 white calcareous deposits which lie in terraces on the valley- 

 side, 1000 ft. above the Gardiner Eiver, rising 200-300 ft. 

 high. In most of the springs the water is iridescent, and the 

 temperature of some reaches 130° Fahr., at which heat water 

 boils at that elevation. 



Most of the Park is covered with dense Pine-forest. Some 

 twelve miles south of the Mammoth Hot -Springs are obsidian 

 cliffs from 150 to 250 ft. in height, and 1000 ft. in length. 

 At their foot is the Lake of the Woods, on whose banks 

 remain clear traces of Beaver-dams. Six or seven miles 

 further south is Norris Geyser Basin, in which are twenty 

 geysers and upwards of 1000 boiling springs. " Gibbon 



