34 



the lioetes exhibited at the last meeting, and had found both macro - 

 spores and microspores. 



Mr. C. p. Smith, in reply to the President, said he had brought 

 down for e.xhibition the general anatomy of the hive bee, mounted on 

 one slide, the ovaries of the queen bee, a very uncommon object, in 

 which the eggs were shown, as well as the sting, the tongues of the 

 hive and other bees, and the sting of wasp. 



Mr. Wonfor said he had the tongues of the humble bee, the 

 honey bee, and the wasp for comparison, the stings of the wasp and 

 bee, the latter showing the two serrated stings protruded from the 

 sheath, the heads of the hive bee and wasp, parasites of bee, and 

 crystals of honey and sugar. 



The meeting then became a conversazione, when the above- 

 mentioned and other objects illustrating the anatomy of the bee were 

 exhibited by the President, Messrs. Haselwood, C. P. Smith, E. 

 Glaisyer, R. Glaisyer, and Wonfor. 



February ioth. 



ORDINARY MEETING.— MR. BENJAMIN LOMAX "ON 

 THE BRANCHING OF TREES." 



The subject of the paper had always possessed the greatest 

 interest for him, principally, he thought, because he seemed to have it 

 all to himself Until the time of Lindley, physiologists appeared to 

 look upon a tree as a structure composed entirely of a root and 

 flowers, and though Le Maout, Sachs, and others had lately bestowed 

 much attention on Taxophylly, the growth of wood, and the develop- 

 ment of branches from buds, that symmetrical arrangement by which 

 each tree acquired its marked and unmistakeable character and out- 

 line, preserved to the finest veining of its leaves, had been 

 entirely neglected by the botanists, and only remarked on, from an 

 artistic point of view, by Ruskin, in his " Modern Painters." 



That the form of a tree was regulated by general laws, independent 



