Proceedings. Ixiii 



rivers, and made some remarks on the ancient character of these 

 objects. 



Mr. Goodman exhibited some beautifully-executed drawmgs of 



microscopic fungi. 



Mr. Mennell exhibited some dried plants from Switzerland, 

 among which were two orchids, Eptpogiim Gmdini and Ce/jha- 

 lanthera rubra, which have been found as very rare natives of 

 Britain. . . 



Your President exhibited specimens of several rare British 

 plants grown in his garden, viz., the shepherd's-staff or small 

 teasel [Dipsaciis pilosm), from Arundel ; Senccio saracenims, from 

 Somerset ; and two species of balsam naturalised in Surrey, viz., 

 Impatiejis pan-ijiora, from Oxted, and I.fulva, from the banks of 

 the Tillingbourne at Abiuger. The latter was the plant referred 

 to in the last Presidential Address as Impatiens 'Soli-me-tangere, 

 wliich was, I find, an error.* In my garden at Croydon it does 

 not produce the normal petalled flowers, but bears seed a,bun- 

 dantly, hke the wood-sorrel and some of the violets, from minute 

 inconspicuous petal-less flowers. Its congener, I. porviflora, 

 seems not to possess this habit, which also is not shared by all 

 the species of Oxalis and Viola. 



The fungi which had been gathered at Squerryes Park at the 

 excursion on the previous Saturday were also exhibited, and 

 your President gave a brief account of the botanical characters 

 of this group of plants. . . 



On Oct. 16th a lecture was given by Mr. Lovett on " Primitive 

 Lighting Appliances." Beginning with the crudest appliances, 

 such as a whelk-shell containing oil, the beak of the shell serving 

 to hold the wick, or a stone hollowed into a cup- shaped cavity 

 for the oil, with a groove in which the wick lay, he traced the 

 development of the oil-lamp through successive stages to its 

 modern form. An important improvement upon the simplest 

 forms was to add a vessel under the lamp to catch the redundant 

 oil dripping from the wick. Tiiis stage is represented by the 

 " cruzy " still in use in the north of Scotland, and met with 

 under various forms and modifications in many parts of the 

 world. It consists of two beaked saucers of nietal, one above the 

 other, the upper containing the oil and wick, and the lower 

 receiving the drip ; the upper saucer can be tilted forward to 

 supply the wick when the oil gets low. In a further stage the 

 beak becomes a spout. Other modifications were the covering of 

 the oil-vessel by a lid, and the holding of the wick in a carrier, 

 and this being removed from the side to the centre of the oil- 

 vessel, we had the origin of the modern oil-lamp. The glass 

 chimney and Argand burner were improvements added in the 

 last century. Tlie lecture was illustrated by excellent lantern- 

 slides of lamps in Mr. Lovett's collection, from photographs by 



