XXXI. 



Club "Proceedings' 5 and the question of drawing out a set of Printed 

 Schedules for recording the annual observations of Flowering of Plants 

 and the appearances of Birds and Insects throughout the county. A 

 sub-committee of six members was arranged for the purpose of devising 

 the most suitable schedule for the requirements of Dorsetshire, which 

 should be issued to members as soon as possible. 



A WINTER MEETING of the Society was held the same day at 

 12 o'clock, which was very largely attended, although the weather 

 was most unpleasant. Twelve new members were elected to the 

 Society. The question of the exchange of the Publications of the Field 

 Club were then brought before the meeting. Invitations for an 

 exchange of publications were announced from the Royal Archaeo- 

 logical Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and from the Royal 

 Historical and Archaeological Society of Ireland. It was eventually 

 decided to agree to these exchanges, the volumes so received to be 

 placed in the Library of the County Museum. The President noticed 

 the discovery amongst a collection of bones obtained from the Kimmeridge 

 Clay, near Gillingham, and deposited in Museum by the generosity of 

 Mr. Freame, of a humerus of a Saurian, belonging to a genus which had 

 been separated from that of Ichthyosaurus only a year or two since by 

 Professor Seeley. This new species Professor Seeley had named 

 OphthyosauruSy the peculiar appendages of the eye being one of the 

 leading features of the Ichthyopterygian Family. The President said he 

 hoped to be able to describe this interesting discovery more fully during 

 the coming year. He also referred to the valuable collection of fossils 

 formed by the late Mr. Damon, F.G.S., of Weymouth, which had been 

 purchased from his executors by the generosity of residents in the County 

 of Dorset and deposited in the County Museum. The printed programme 

 for the day included six papers : Mr. Eustace Bankes read the first 

 paper, on various plants found in flower in the neighbourhood of Coiie 

 Castle during the month of December, 1888. This paper, describing 

 some of the results of the exceptionally mild winter of 1888, will be 

 found at p. 82 of the present volume. In the discussion which followed 

 the President referred to the absence of flowers on flowering trees in the 

 previous spring. The Rev. G. Thompson mentioned the scarcity of cyder 

 in Herefordshire through the failure of the apple crop. The Rev. O. P. 

 Cambridge gave evidence of a similar character in reference to his own 

 orchard at Bloxworth. Mr. H. Moule noticed a scarcity of acorns ; Mr. 

 Richardson of haws ; Mr. Groves of the failure of the apple crop in 

 Normandy. Mr. T. B. Groves, of Weymouth, then read a paper which 

 had been prepared some months previously by the late Mr. R. Damon on 



