xlii Proceedings. 



measured 18 in. in length by 1 in. in thickness. These icicles 

 were due to the copious flow of sap from the cut surfaces of the 

 branches, and indicated great activity in the tree, in spite of the 

 severity of the weather. 



The paper of the evening was by Mr. H. S. Eaton, " On the 

 Meteorology of the Croydon District from 1881 to 1885 inclusive, 

 the Air, Temperature, and the Eaiufall." This valuable report 

 was included in the last volume of Transactions, having been 

 formally presented for that purpose at the Anniversary Meeting. 

 Mr. Eaton's paper pointed out all the more important and 

 interesting results of, and deductions from, the records of the 

 five years. 



An excellent discussion followed, the meeting having the ad- 

 vantage of the presence of Mr. Symons and Mr. Marriott, the 

 eminent meteorologists. Several of our own members, including 

 Mr. Baldwin Latham and Dr. Carpenter, also took part in the 

 discussion. The relative value of the various recording stations 

 and the defects of position, &c., especially of the Greenwich 

 instruments, were pointed out. 



Mr. Baldwin Latham exhibited a diagram showing the varia- 

 tions of the water-level in the Addington Valley, and remarked 

 on the rainfall and water-temperature in the various wells in the 

 district, the results of a carefully recorded series of observations 

 maintained by him for a number of years, some of the results of 

 which he promised to place at the service of the Club. 



Fifth Kveninij Mcctintj, Se.jttcuilter 8th, 1S86. — The first meeting 

 after the recess, being the fifth of the session, was held on 

 September 8th. Mr. Nation exhibited a very interesting specimen 

 of the cells of a solitary bee, which had been built upon the edges 

 of a book standing in a book-case. 



I, also, exhibited specimens of the small orchid, the autumnal 

 ladies' tresses, Sjiirnnt/us autiDiDudia, from Kiddlesdown. This 

 plant is very irregular and uncertain in its appearance, and was 

 this year in most unusual abundance all along the ridge of 

 Eiddlesdown, especially in the neighbourhood of the rifle-butts. 



Mr. Edward Lovett then read a paper, " On the Gun-flint 

 Manufactory at Brandon, in Suffolk " (Teans., art. 61), illustrated 

 by a large and most interesting series of specimens. The great 

 interest which attaches to this manufactory is, in the first place, 

 that it is almost, if not quite, the only maniifactoiy of gun- 

 flints still existing, and it continues to turn out these at the rate of 

 three or four millions a year, chiefly for the Afi'ican market ; and 

 secondly, that the manufacture of flint implements has gone on 

 here continuously through the Palteolithic and Neolithic periods 

 right down to our own times. The well-known Grimes' Graves 

 in its neighbourhood are simply the pits by means of which the 



