CXXXxvili Proceedings. 
this very wide district, which extends south of the Thames 
from the Darenth in the east to the Mole in the west, increased 
from seventy-three to seventy-eight, and the number of observers 
from sixty-one to sixty-six. The rainfall for the year showed 
mainly a deficiency, being 1°75 in. below the average of forty 
years at Greenwich ; but at Surbiton it was 0:18 in. above the 
average. September was a remarkably wet month, the very 
unusual proportion of five out of twelve days in which one inch 
or more fell occurring in that month. At Greenwich the fall 
for September was 3:14 in. above the forty years’ average; at 
Wimbledon 3°57 in., and at Surbiton as much as 4:91 in. above 
the average. Places like Greenwich and Wimbledon lie to the 
north of the range of hills bordering the River Thames, while 
Surbiton lies to the west of them. This might possibly account 
for the excessive rainfall in the latter place. The excellent 
work of the Society in this direction had been favourably com- 
mented upon in many scientific papers in this country and 
abroad. 
The next paper was by Dr. Franklin Parsons on ‘** The Times 
of Appearance of Early Spring Flowers.’’ This paper is printed 
in our ‘ Transactions’ (Article 135). 
An interesting discussion followed each paper. 
A Conversational Meeting was held on February 24th, when 
Mr. Moore opened a conversation on Shingle Beaches, and 
several interesting points were discussed. 
On March 16th a general Evening Meeting was held. Messrs. 
Epps, Jun., Mennell, and Lovett showed interesting objects of 
Japanese manufacture, amongst which were some metallic 
mirrors—brought, I think, by Mr. Lovett—in which you could 
see the object from the other side. Mr. Collyer showed a flint 
implement, and Mr. Sturge a coral rescued from a dust-heap. 
The event of the evening was Mr. Pelton’s paper on ‘‘ Japanese 
Lacquer, its History, Manufacture, and Decoration.’ This 
paper is printed in our ‘ Transactions’ (Article 136), 
On March 24th was a Conversational Meeting, when Dr. 
Parsons gave a valuable demonstration on Mosses. 
On April 10h our first.excursion took place. We went to the 
Hunterian Museum under the guidance of Dr. Franklin Parsons. 
Several wax models illustrating human anatomy were explained. 
We also inspected the vast collections illustrating the osteology 
of man and animals, as well as specimens of sponges, crusta- 
ceans, &c.; and ascending to the galleries, we examined wax 
models of the torpedo and its electrical apparatus, and also 
OEE 
