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most of the species, wliich will be of mueli assistance on 

 their classification. 



He called the attention of the Society to the labours 

 of Dr A. Balfour junior on the flora of Rodrigues with 

 reference to the divers shapes assumed in our islands by 

 the leaves of plants, and recalled to memory the idea of 

 Bory de St. Vincent who discovered in these changes, 

 as indecision on the part of Nature, trying several forms 

 which were afterwards set aside, before it definitively 

 adopted a form for the plants. 



Mr Daruty made several communications respecting 

 the cryptogams of the Island to which he still directs his 

 attention. After speaking of the Licliens he points out 

 several new mosses. 



Geologi/. — As regards the formation of lie aiix Fou' 

 guefs, Mr Daruty Jfe of opinion that that Island was raised 

 fi'om the Bay of Mahebourg — an opinion which he explains 

 by the specimens he brought away; they contain frag- 

 ments of terrestrial shells and of bones of birds buried in 

 the calcarious formation of the Island. He also remarked 

 the inclination and the du'ectiou of the calcarious layers. 



Your Secretary communicated several interesting 

 facts mentioned in foreign daily papers. 



For instance, an observation on the nature of certain 

 plants, the leaves of which retain the rain or the humidity 

 of the atmosphere in a much larger quantity than trees 

 with a thick foliage. The family cemfers enjoy this pro- 

 perty in a much higher degree than any other plants. It 



