Royal Society. 131 
animal manure, and stated that he had always found the ergot most 
abundant in the grasses of churchyards. 
June 24.—‘* On the Germination of Plants.”” By Dr. Lankester. 
The author took the following view of the phenomena :—That 
the only essential process in germination is the growth of the young - 
plant, or embryo. The process of development of the embryo, from 
primitive cytoblasts developing its tissues, is precisely the same as 
that of every other part of the plant, and from an identity of struc- 
ture an identity of function might be inferred. But the ordinary 
theory of germination gave a different function to the tissues of the 
embryo. ‘The author regarded the absorption of oxygen, the disen- 
gagement of carbonic acid gas and ammonia, as the consequence of 
the decomposition of the starch and proteine contained in the albu- 
men or perisperm of the seed; and that the growing cells of the 
embryo appropriated the carbonic acid, ammonia and water, just in 
the same way as all other cells in the vegetable kingdom. 
Mr. Westwood made some remarks on the Honey-Bee.—After 
shortly noticing the general ceconomy of the hive-bee as to the pro- 
duction of queens and the swarming of casts, he contended, from 
the analogy between the circumstances connected with the latter 
event and those which accompany the swarming of ants, gnats, white 
ants, mayflies, &c.,—I1st, that the swarming of insects has for its 
principal object the union of the sexes; 2nd, that from analogy with 
other insects subject to swarming, it is to be inferred that that species 
does not differ in this respect from other swarming species; and, 
rd, that it is the newly-hatched, and not the old queen which leads 
off the swarm. 
June 25.—‘* Notes on the Irish Species of Robertsonian Saxi- 
frages.’ By Mr. Andrews. 
The author having studied the Irish Saxifrages, and compared 
them with those of the Pyrenees, had come to a different conclusion 
from Mr. Babington, and believed that there were only two true 
species in Ireland, the Savifraga umbrosa and the S. Geum, The 
other species described by Mr. Babington in his ‘ Manual,’ he re- 
garded as varieties of one or other of these forms. 
ROYAL SOCIETY. 
June 19, 1845.—“ The Blood-Corpuscle considered in its different 
phases of development in the Animal Series.” By Thomas Wharton 
Jones, Esq., F.R.S., Lecturer on Anatomy, Physiology and Patho- 
logy, at the Charing Cross Hospital. 
This paper is divided into three parts: the first relating to the 
blood-corpuscles of the Vertebrata; the second to those of the In- 
vertebrata ; and the last to a comparison between the two. He first 
describes the microscopic appearances of these corpuscles in differ- 
ent classes of vertebrate animals, beginning with the skate and the 
frog, and proceeding to birds and mammifera; first in their early 
embryonic state, and next in the subsequent periods of their growth, 
He finds in oviparous vertebrata generally, four principal forms of 
