23 
if we like to commence the work of observation. I chose 
the subject because I thought it might give us all an object 
to work for at once, as the Primroses are now coming out. 
I give you a hint or two about it. Set notes down in your 
vade-mecum (I suppose no member of a Natural History 
Society goes out without a note-book) to work out answers to 
the following questions :— 
1. Are these oxlips most plentiful among primroses or among 
cowslips ? 
2. Do those which occur among primroses bear a closer 
resemblance to primroses than to cowslips ? 
3. Do those among cowslips resemble those flowers most ? 
4. Have you ever found primroses and oxlips on the same 
root? 
5. Have you ever found cowslips and oxlips on the same 
root? 
In all probability the Primrose, Cowslip, and Oxlip are not 
distinct species, but have been developed from one common 
form, according to surrounding circumstances. 
(pig) Searels 8 
Wednesday, April 27th, 
CoNVERSAZIONE ‘at the Town Hall. On the table were 
collections of Dried British Plants, and also from the Arctic 
Regions. The following Paper on the latter was read by the 
President : 
ARCTIC BOTANY. 
I propose this evening to say a few words on the effects of 
temperature in modifying the growth and external character- 
istics of plants. You are, most of you, I think, aware that I 
made a voyage some 13 OF 14 ago to the North Pole, with 
Lord Dufferin, an account of which he subsequently published. 
T am not, to-night, going into any account of that voyage, or 
of the many points which might, perhaps, be interesting to 
us as Naturalists; this I propose to do, with your permission, 
on some future occasion, when in the form of a Lecture I 
may call your attentlon, not only to the Fauna and Flora of 
the extreme North, but to the manners and customs of the 
natives, some of them sufficiently primitive, which may prove 
