eee PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 1 
BriGHToN AND Sussex Naturat History Socrery. 
May 12th.—The President, Mr. T. H. Hennah, F.R.M.S., in the 
chair. 
Mr. Wonfor reported on the success of the field excursion of the 
previous Saturday, and announced that Mr. H. Willett had invited the 
Society to pay him a visit at Findon in June. 
The meeting being for the exhibition of specimens, Dr. Badcock 
exhibited a large piece of fossil wood recently brought from the island 
of Portland by his brother. 
Mr. Penley laid on the table a copy of the first part of ‘Flowering 
Plants of Tunbridge Wells, by Dr. R. Deakin, in course of publica- 
tion; and specimens of oak recently picked up at Tunbridge Wells, 
coloured green by a fungus, Helotium eruginosum, growing on it. This 
affords the green seen in Tunbridge Wells ware. Dr. Hallifax com- 
mented on the growth of this fungus, which he had raised from spores 
obtained from the infected oak. It was easy to trace the mycelious 
threads in their sections, 
Mr. Wonfor remarked that this particular fungus growth was found 
in France and England wherever the Hastings sands cropped out, 
leading to the supposition that there was something peculiar in the 
chemical conditions of soil, &e. 
The President exhibited a couple of specimens alive of the sea- 
mouse, Aphrodita hispida, dredged up off Brighton a few evenings 
before, and remarked on the hairs as microscopic objects. 
Dr. Hallifax exhibited some very beautiful micro-photographs of 
his own taking, the most striking of which were,—injected stomach of 
owl, 40 diam., showing glandular structure; poison-bag of spider, 
showing poison fluid issuing from it—in putting on the covering glass 
in mounting some of the fluid was squeezed out; teeth of medicinal 
leech, 480 diam.,in which the true nature of the teeth was shown; 
sections of proboscis of blow-fly—one transverse, the other vertical 
in which the rasping teeth situated on the central disc were very 
prominent; a curious spine of echinus, trachee of silkworm, and 
tongue of bee. 
Mr. Dennant exhibited a bottle of the ooze obtained in the ‘ Poreu- 
pine’ expedition, in lat. 47° 35’ N., long. 12° 15’ W., at a depth of 
2435 feet; surface temperature, 65° 5’ F.; bottom ditto, 36° 5’ F.; 
pressure, 457 atmospheres, or nearly three tons to square inch. The 
ooze was calcareous mud full of Globigerinze and Foraminifera, and 
would be shared out among the members at the microscopical meeting. 
Mr. Wonfor exhibited cluster cups on the dog-violet (Viola canina) 
and common nettle, an owl cast composed of the fur and bones of 
mice, eggs and cocoons of the Emperor moth (Saturnia Carpini), and 
forty-three males of the same moth attracted in two days at Polegate 
and Tilgate by one female: fifty had settled on the box containing her, 
of which forty-three were secured. He then read a paper on the 
power possessed by the females of some insects of attracting the males 
of the same species in large numbers and from long distances. This 
led toa very animated discussion. 
