296 
NATURE 
| Fan. 13, 1870 
—Mr. Saunders alluded to the circumstance that the dead bodies 
of a species of fly might occasionally be found imprisoned in the 
flowers of Lolium perenne, as if the plant exerted some poisonous 
influence on the insect. Mr. A. W. Bennett stated, as a result 
of his observations, that it is impossible to predicate of any given 
family, whether its members are self or cross-fertilised. In the 
same group some species may be cross-fertilised, others  self- 
fertilised. Many winter-flowering plants are self-fertilised, and 
amongst them the common Poa aznua. Mr. Horne stated that 
in India different varieties of maize remain constant, even though 
grown in adjacent fields, so that it would seem as if no crossing 
took place in this instance.—A conversation then ensued as to 
the best method of conducting in future the meteorological obser- 
vations at Chiswick, when Mr. Glaisher stated that he would be 
willing to reorganise the system of observation in such a manner 
as to introduce the requisite changes, without impairing the value 
of the record kept at Chiswick for upwards of forty years. In 
reference to ground temperature, he stated that at a depth of 
twenty-five feet the ground was coldest in July, and warmest in 
January. 
Institution of Civil Engineers, December 21.—Annual 
General Meeting. Charles Hutton Gregory, Esq., president, in 
the chair. Referring to the business at the ordinary general 
meetings, of which there were twenty-two during the past session, 
attention had been directed by the papers read, and by the dis- 
cussions upon them, to the use of machinery in lieu of gunpowder 
for ‘‘getting”? coal; to cylinder foundations for bridges and 
other similar structures ; to the Midland line of the Mauritius 
railways, where exceptionally steep gradients and sharp curves 
were necessarily adopted; to some of the chief peculiarities 
of American locomotives and rolling stock ; to works carried 
out in connection with the river Witham and estuary, for the 
drainage of the fens and the improvement of the navigation ; 
to the past and present condition of the outfall of the river 
Humber, and of its peculiar feature, Spurn Point ; to the New 
Ferry and the New Brighton piers and landing-stages on the river 
Mersey ; to the Low-water Basin at Birkenhead, and the exten- 
sive sluicing operations for maintaining the basin at its proper 
depth ; to the lagoons and marshes on certain parts of the shores 
of the Mediterranean ; to the mechanical details of construction 
of lighthouse apparatus and lanterns ; to the Roman Rock light- 
house, Cape of Good Hope; to the standards of comparison for 
testing the illuminating power of coal-gas ; and lastly, to an able 
summary, bya foreign engineer, of the present state of knowledge 
as to the theory of the strength and resistance of materials of con- 
struction. The originality, labour, and ingenuity displayed in 
these communications, had led to the award of Telford Medals and 
Premiums of Books to Messrs. Jules Gaudard, W. Shelford, 
T. N. Kirkham, J. Ellacott, and D. T. Ansted, F.R.S.; of a 
Watt Medal and a Telford Premium of Books to Mr. Z. Col- 
burn; of Telford Premiums of Books to Messrs. W. H. Wheeler, 
J. R. Mosse, I. Bell, J. Milroy, S. P. Bidder, jun., and C. J. 
Chubb ; and of the Manby Premium of Books to Mr. D. M. 
Henderson. 
In addition to the ordinary general meetings, there were six 
supplemental meetings, for the reading and discussion of papers 
by the students. For the papers read at these supplemental 
meetings, Miller Prizes had been awarded to the following 
students: Messrs. E. Bazalgette, F. H. Mort, T. J. Ellis, T. R. 
Gainsford, C. H. G. Jenkinson, and G. H. Roberts. 
After a statement of the financial condition of the institution, 
it was announced that the council had recently taken vigorous 
measures to vindicate the honour of the profession, which 
had been unjustifiably assailed by the Government of India, in a 
notification, the plain intention of which could only be to charge 
civil engineers with recognising as legitimate the receipt of com- 
missions from others than their immediate employers, and in 
addition to their salaries, where so remunerated. The Secretary 
of State for India had put on record ‘‘ that he regards with im- 
plicit confidence the indignant repudiation by the institution of 
the recognition of any such practice as that referred to,” and 
that he would call upon the Governor-General in Council for an 
explanation of the circumstances which led to the issue of the 
objectionable notification. A sufficient time had not yet elapsed 
for an answer to be received from India to the remonstrance of 
the institution. In the meantime, the council felt assured that 
the steps they had taken would meet with cordial approval. 
In inviting attention to this report, the presentation of which 
terminated the trust confided to them by the last annual general 
meeting, the council observed that they had laboured so to direct 
the affairs entrusted to them, that the discharge of their duties 
might be attended with advantage to the institution. 
The following gentlemen were elected to fill the several offices 
in the Council for the ensuing year :—Charles Blacker Vignoles, 
President ; Joseph Cubitt, Thomas Elliot Harrison, ‘Thomas 
Hawksley, and George Willoughby Hemans, Vice-Presidents ; 
James Abernethy, William Henry Barlow, John Frederic Bate- 
man, Joseph William Bazalgette, Nathaniel Beardmore, Frede- 
rick Joseph Bramwell, James Brunlees, John Murray, George 
Robert Stephenson, and Edward Woods, Members; and 
Edward Middleton Barry and Lieut.-Col. Andrew Clarke, C.B., 
R.E., Associates. 
EDINBURGH 
Royal Physical Society, December 22.—Professor Duns, 
president, in the chair. The following gentlemen were elected 
members :—Messrs. Gibson and Durham. ‘The office-bearers 
for the sessions were elected as follows :—Presidents, Professor 
John Duns, D.D., R. F. Logan, C. W. Peach; Council, E. W. 
Dallas, T. S. Wright, M.D., James M‘Bain, M.D., R.N,, R. 
Brown, Stevenson Macadam, A. Wilson; Secretary, John A. 
Smith, M.D.; Treasurer, G. Logan, W.S.; Assistant Secretary, 
J. Boyd Davies; Honorary Librarian, A. Taylor.—Notice of 
the occurrence of Gonoplax angulata off the coast of Mull, by 
M. Watson, M.D. This rare crab was taken in September last 
by Dr. Watson, when dredging in ‘‘ Bloody Bay,” on the north 
coast of Mull, in about twenty-five fathoms water. ‘The dredge 
was filled with soft mud, along with a great quantity of the 
Pennatula and Virgaelaria. As far as he could learn, it was the 
first time it had been taken on the Scottish coasts. Mr. Bell, in 
his ‘‘ Brit. Crustacea,” says it is not known to have been taken 
in Scotland. This species has not been taken on the east coast 
of Scotland nor in Shetland. Mr. Peach stated it was got on 
the south coast of England, on the Welsh coast, and also in 
Ireland. It isa Mediterranean species. The specimen was a 
young male, and was an interesting addition to the list of Scot- 
tish crustacea. Dr. Duns exhibited a fine species of Gurnard 
( Zrigla), which had been forwarded to the New College Museum 
by the Rey. Walter Wood, Elie, to whom it had been brought 
as a novelty by a fisherman. He pointed out a number of 
features in which the specimen differs from those described by 
Yarrell, Fleming, Gunther, and others, but was inclined to regard 
it as a variety of 77igla fini (Block). 
DUBLIN 
Natural History Society, January 5.—The Rey. Professor 
Haughton, M.1., F.R.S., in the chair. Mr. W. Andrews read 
a paper ‘‘On the inhabitants of rockpools and caves, Dingle 
Bay.” The rockpools of Dingle Bay had been examined in 
October 1868, and were teeming with animal life. After 
reminding the members of the pleasure of being naturalists, Mr. 
Andrews said that in the present paper he would speak of the 
Actinozoa that he had met with in Dingle Bay, and among the 
species that he mentioned the following appear to be of most 
interes as being apparently unrecorded as Irish :—dA/zf/asia 
couchii; Cerianthus, a species near C. Lloydit, Stromphia 
churchia, Balanophyllia regia. Living specimens of Caryophyllia 
smithii were dredged in fifty fathoms of water. Mr. Jeffrey’s 
paper ‘‘On Deep-sea Dredging” (Vide NATURE, p. 135), was 
referred to, as proving that this coral was a deep-sea species, 
whereas Mr. Gosse and Professor Wright twelve years ago 
described it as being a littoral zone species. Great quantities of 
Nullipora compressa were met with, and many beautiful coloured 
specimens of the egg-cases of Pyrpura dapillus with the young 
shell in them. The author then proceeded to refer to coral-reefs, 
and stated that he now believed that the AZi/leporva alcicornis 
Linn. was not acoral. It was a true £scharva, and took the 
place in these seas of the Peci//ofora of the tropics. At another 
time he would refer again to the stony corals met with in Dingle 
Bay, and enter into the full history of their affinities and strue- 
ture.—Dr. A. Macalister read a paper ‘‘ On the Mode of Growth 
of Univalve Shells.” Referring to Canon Moseley’s memoir on the 
geometrical forms of turbinated and discoid shells, he stated 
that he had made a large number of measurements to determine 
the logarithmic spiral of the different families of Gasteropods, 
with the hope that the number found to express the ratio of the 
geometrical progression of the dimensions of their whorls might 
be of use in classification. In this he had to a certain extent 
succeeded, as the tables exhibited showed. Mr. Lalor was glad 
tosee the result of Dr. Macalister’s work, as it quite corroborated 
some investigations that he had made on this interesting subject 
several years ago.—The Rey. Professor Haughton then read a 
