xlii. 



THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING. 



THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Club was held on 

 Tuesday, May gth, in the Reading Room of the Museum. The 

 President, Mr. N. M. Richardson, took the chair at 12.45. 



THE MEMBERSHIP. Fourteen candidates proposed at the 

 last meeting were elected Members, and ten candidates for 

 membership were proposed for election at the next meeting. 



EXHIBITS. 



BY THE PRESIDENT : 



An orchis, found by Mr. Brunsden, pier-master, of Swanage, and sent on his 

 behalf by Miss Clapcott. Mr. Brunsdeu stated that they were plentiful in one 

 particular spot in that locality. 



Mr. RICHAEDSOX, when exhibiting the specimen, added the following note : 

 "This appears from the glabrous petals to be Ophrys aranifera, Huds. var. o, 

 genniiia. This form seems to be new to Dorset, var. . fucifera, Smith, being the 

 only form recorded in Mr. Mansel-Pley dell's ' Flora of Dorset.' The naming of 

 f/aiidita is confirmed by Mr. W. Bowles Barrett, of Weymouth, who, however, 

 points out that the two forms are not distinguished in Watson's Topographical 

 Bot., Ed. 2, nor in Brebisson's Flore de la Normandie, or Lloyd's More de 

 1' Quest de la France, and that Townsend, in 'Flora of Hampshire,' remarks 

 that fucifera can hardly be separated from the type. The Rev. E. F. Linton 

 writes : ' Some of the best Kent observers have given their matured opinions 

 that Ophrys aranifera and 0. fitcifera, Sim., are not separable, being only 

 distinguished by the pubescence on the lateral petals, and every stage of variation 

 is to be found on the same down (see Flora of Kent, Eng. Bot, Ed. 3, &c.), where 

 both forms occur, and the tendency at present is to drop fucifera, even as a 

 variety, though it was published by Smith as a species, wore SHO, and merge it in 

 aranifera as a mere form or state. The Dorset form, having generally pubescent 

 petals, has been usually called fucifera. My few specimens all have some 

 pubescence, much or little, not all alike.' " 



BY DE. COLLEY MAECH: 



An ancient token given to him by Pasteur E. Moutarde, of the Reformed 

 Church of Saujon, France. 



To this day, he said, a curious custom prevailed. When the communicant 

 came to the altar he handed to the priest or pastor a small coin of little value, and 

 why he did so he did not know. The fact was that it was a curious traditional 

 survival of the times of persecution, when it was necessary for every communicant 

 to give some secret sign to the celebrant that he was not an intruder or spy. 



