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August 1, 1883. 

 J. W. Dunning, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., &c, President, in the chair. 



Donations to the Library were announced, and thanks voted to the 

 respective donors. 



Election of a Member. 



W. H. B. Fletcher, Esq., M.A.. (6, The Steyne, Worthing, Sussex), was 

 balloted for and elected a Member of the Society. 



Exhibitions, <fkc. 



Mr. T. R. Billups exhibited specimens of both sexes of Pompilus spissus, 

 Schiodte, captured at Headley Lane in June last. 



Mr. E. A. Fitch stated that Dr. Buchanan White had called his attentiou 

 to the possibility of the supposed gall on twisrs of juniper received from 

 Mentone, and figured on p. vi of the 'Proceedings' for this year, being 

 really a fungus. He had sent the remains of the specimen to Dr. Buchanan 

 White, and had received the following note in reply : — 



"I have examined the juniper twigs you have kindly forwarded, and 

 find that my surmise was correct. The galls turn out to be, as I suspected, 

 a species of Podisoma, a peculiar and rather abnormal genus of Puccinicei. 

 The fungi of this family form pulverulent masses in or on leaves, but in 

 Podisoma (or the doubtfully distinct Gymnosporangium) the pseudospores 

 are not dusty, but imbedded in a gelatinous stratum, and are parasitic on 

 the stems of different species of juniper. This is not the first occasion 

 on which these fungi have been mistaken for galls. They cause the twigs 

 and stems of the attacked plant to form large club-like swellings (your 

 specimen shows this in some degree), and these have been thought to be 

 galls, though no animal was found in them. The swellings are persistent, 

 and the gelatinous mass of the fructification of the fungus appear on them 

 year after year at the proper season (usually in spring). I have frequently 

 found orange-coloured Cecidomyideous larvas living upon different kinds of 

 fungi, but usually quite exposed. Your specimen is interesting from the 

 way in which the larvae have made habitations out of the fungus. As 

 several species of Podisoma and Gymnosporangium occur in England, it 

 would be worth while noticing if they are attacked in a manner similar 

 to the Mentone one. I enclose a rough drawing of the pseudospores, taken 

 from your specimen." 



Mr. Fitch also read a note from Mr. Charles B. Plowright, giving the 

 specific name of the fungus as GymnosporangiwnjnnijJerina, Linne, and 

 continuing: — "It is a heteroecious fungus; its other state is found upon 

 Sorbus aucuparia, and is known as Rcestelia cornuta, Tul. Many insects 

 are recorded by E. Rathay, in his ' Untersuchuugen uber die Spermogonieu 



