Nile Exploration 161 



reached him. 1 These had fully confirmed his original 

 view of its structure. The two great fleshy leaf-like bodies 

 are persistent cotyledons, never changed, though in some 

 cases they may be a century old. He gave additional 

 particulars of its structure, stating that the embryogeny 

 combines in a remarkable way that of the gymnosperms 

 and the angiosperms, and the fructification consists of cones, 

 female and hermaphrodite, the ovules in the latter being 

 abortive. 



Dec. nth, I43rd meeting. Dr. Daubeny exhibited some 

 fibrous balls, picked up on the Mediterranean coast near 

 Villa Franca, 8 which apparently were formed from the 

 leaves of Posidonia maritima, a plant allied to Zostera marina. 



1863. Jan. 29th, I44th meeting. Sir R. Murchison said 

 that three ladies had fitted out a steamer at Khartum, and, 

 after ascending the river Sobat for some distance, had 

 continued up the White Nile till they were obliged to turn 

 back, owing to the shallowness of the water, rather south of 

 Gondokoro and about 4 north of the equator. No news 

 had reached them of Mr. Petherick, who had set off for that 

 place to meet Captains Speke and Grant, except a rumour 

 that, owing to unfavourable weather, he had sent his boats 

 back to Khartum and proceeded on foot, and it was appre- 

 hended that he had been killed. 



March 24th, I46th meeting. Dr. Bence Jones read an 

 extract from the Minutes of the Board of Managers of the 

 Royal Institution, dated March ist, 1813, in which Sir 

 Humphry Davy reports having engaged a young man named 

 Michael Faraday, 3 " whose habits seem good, his disposition 

 active and cheerful, and his manner intelligent." His duties 

 were to assist Professors and Lecturers, both before and 

 during their discourses, to prepare instruments and illustra- 



1 Welwitschia mirabilis is described by Dr. Hooker in the Linn. Soc. 

 Trans, vol. xxiv. (part i. 1863). A short account is given in Encyc. Brit. 

 vol. xxix. page 192 (nth ed.). 



2 Now Villefranche, a few miles to the east of Nice. 



3 He succeeded Davy in the Chair of Chemistry at the Royal Institution 

 in 1827, and was at the above date a member of the Club, having been 

 elected May 6th, 1847. 



P.C. L 



