REPORTS. 71 



Green ; and other rare mosses. — Mr. T. Bolton exhibited Zoothamnium 

 dichotomum, from one of the reserve tanks in the Aston Aquarium. — Mr. W. G. 

 Blatch exhibited Pcecilocampa populi, December Moth, rare iu the district, taken 

 at Knowle, in December last. — Mr. H. W. Jones, F.C.S., F.R.M.S., read a paper 

 on " Water Plants, and their Office in Nature," which will appear in a future 

 number. 



BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLAND INSTITUTE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY, 

 — January 28th. Mr. C. J. Woodward, B.Sc, read a paper on the Outline of the 

 Kinetic Theory of Gases. — February 11th. Mr. A. E. Robinson, F.C.S. 

 Alkaloids, their Sources and Reactions. 



BIRMINGHAM PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.— At a general meeting of 

 the members of this Society, on February 12tb, (Dr. Darwin's 71st birthday,) on 

 the motion of the Rev. H. W. Watson, M.A., (Vicar of Berkswell,) seconded by 

 the Rev. H. W. Crosskey, Dr. Darwin was elected an honorary member ; and, on 

 the motion of the President (Dr. Heslop,) seconded by Mr. Lawson Tait, the 

 following address was unanimously adopted : — "To Charles Darwin, M.A.. LL.D., 

 F.R.S., &c. The President, Council, and Members of the Birmingham Philosoph- 

 ical Society, assembled on this, the 12th day of February, 1880, your 71st 

 birthday, respectfully and unanimously offer to you the first Honorary Member- 

 ship which the Society has conferred. They desire also to present their hearty 

 congratulations, and to express their earnest hope that you may long be spared 

 to continue those researches which have so widely extended the boundaries of 

 human knowledge, and so profoundly influenced modern scientific thought. Few 

 men are permitted to form by their works Epochs in the history of the world ; 

 but the appearance of the " Origin of Species," followed as it has been by 

 numerous other publications illustrating its doctrines and extending their applica- 

 tion, has constituted an Epoch as important as any that has yet marked the 

 intellectual development of our race. Those who may refuse their assent to the 

 philosophical principles enunciated in your works must admit, equally with those 

 who accept them, that there are few realms of thought into which their influence 

 has not travelled ; while there is no branch of natural history, and hardly a 

 problem connected with the position of man himself upon the earth, which has 

 not had new light cast upon it, by the investigations called forth by your genius. 

 The Members of this Society are conscious that, in offering you this Honorary 

 Membership, they are asking you to confer a distinction upon them ; but thoy 

 feel that such a tribute of respect as they now desire to pay may not inappro- 

 priately come from the town which is the centre of that district with which your 

 family have so long, and with so much honour, been associated. — Signed on 

 behalf of the Philosophical Society of Birmingham." 



BURTON-ON-TRENT NATURAL HISTORY AND ARCH^OLOGICAL 

 SOCIETY.— January 20th. Mr. W. Molyneux, F.G.S., read a paper on 

 " Bosworth Field." He said the battle of Bosworth Field was fought either on 

 the 21st or 22nd August, 1845, the two combatants being members of the same 

 family — Richard III. and Richmond, who afterwards became Henry VII. It was 

 the concluding battle of the Wars of the Roses, which had raged for thirty years 

 at a sacrifice of over 105,000 men. On that field perished the last, if not one of 

 the greatest of the Plantagenet kings — a race of men who, during the long period 

 of 330 years had carried the destinies of England in their hands, and by their 

 high courage, their determination, and generosity had done much in the founda- 

 tion of the institutions and in the maintenance of the glorious and remarkable 

 history of the country. Mr. Molyneux then commented upon the fact that no 

 authenticated particulars of the engagement were known, but he remarked that 

 the battle stood out as an event of three plain and simple but momentous facts — 

 the defeat of the king's troops, the death of one king, and the proclamation of 

 another. The works of historians who lived immediately after the battle were 

 alluded to ; and Mr. Molyneux next proceeded to give what he believed to be a 

 correct account of the battle. February 10th. — Mr. W. G. Blatch, of Birming- 

 ham, read a paper on " Entomological Work in Winter." He said the object he 

 had in view in preparing his notes (which were originally contributed to the 

 Birmingham society) was to try and explode the popular fallacy that insects 



