Mu. W. Kebuie on the EarJi/ Ilislory and Proceedings of the Society. 117 



Gardens, from materials fwnished by IVIr. Clark, the Curator. Through 

 the exertions of Mungo Campbell, Esq., the Orchidaceous House has 

 been completed, and is now occupied with the valuable collections of 

 orchids and ferns. The whole of the conservatories have been heated 

 by hot water pipes. The specimen of the Encephalartus korridus, or 

 Zamia horrida, exhibited to the Society on the corresponding night of 

 last Session, bearing a magnificent amentum or cone, the first which 

 had been produced by this species in the country, was at that time 

 supposed to be the male or anther-bearing plant. On the maturation 

 of the amentum, it was found to be the pistiliferous or female plant, 

 having produced ripe seeds, specimens of which were laid on the Society's 

 table. Some of the seeds have been sown by Mr. Clark, who is in 

 hopes of being able to present before the Society a young plant of the 

 Encephalartus. There being no evidence that the specimen could have 

 been fertilized by the transmission of pollen from an antheriferous 

 plant of the same species, or by hybridization with the poUeu of another 

 species, it becomes an interesting question in vegetable physiology how 

 its fecundation was effected, whether by the transmission of pollen, or 

 by Parthenogenesis, as in the instance of the Coelehogyne ilicifolia, a 

 dioecious Euphorbiaceous plant at Kew, which has never received the 

 fertilizing pollen of the same species, yet has ripened seeds from which 

 a fourth generation has been raised there. 



Mr. Keddie then read a continuation of " Notices of the Early History 

 and Proceedings of the Society." 



Early History and Proceedings of the Society. By Mr. William Keddie. 



In the year 1821 the improvement of the city lamps occupied a share 

 of the Society's attention, the subject being repeatedly brought forward 

 by Mr. James Lumsden, the Treasurer, who appears to have superin- 

 tended the lighting department of the Police Board. Two meetings 

 of the Society were devoted to a discussion on the cause of the moisture 

 formed within the globes of the street lamps. Several members main- 

 tained that the moisture was deposited from the air rarified by the heat 

 of the gas, the more especially as it was observed to condense chiefly on 

 the windward or coolest side ; and it was not till the subject was dis- 

 cussed a second time that, by dint both of argument and experiment, 

 the members were brought to the belief that the water was formed 

 in the process of combu.stion by the combination of hydrogen and oxy- 

 gen. Mr. Lumsden consulted the Society as to the best method ol' 

 iliii\iiin;ilin'j; tlie dial of tlie Tron stee[)l(' clock. Various ])lans wei'c 



