January 29th, 1907.] Proceedings. xix 



Ordinary Meeting, January 29th, 1907. 



Mr. Francis Nicholson, F.Z.S., in the chair. 



The thanks of the members were voted to the donors of the 

 books upon the table. 



Mr. C. L. Barnes, M.A., called attention to passages in 

 Dante which seem in some degree to foreshadow the lately-dis- 

 covered " speaking arc," exhibited by Mr. W. Duddell in his 

 concluding lecture to juveniles at the Royal Institution. In 

 Canto xxvi of the " Inferno," Dante and Virgil have reached the 

 eighth circle of the abyss, and see before them a valley dotted 

 with a multitude of flames, which the poet compares to the 

 fireflies so familiar on warm evenings in Italy. One of these 

 flames is double horned, and conceals the shades of Ulysses 

 and Diemede. Virgil commands it to approach, whereupon 



Of the old flame forthwith the greater horn 

 Began to roll, murmuring, as a fire 

 That labours with the wind ; thus to and fro 

 Wagging the top, as a tongue uttering sounds, 

 Threw out its voice and spake. 



From another flame, bidden in like manner to draw near, 

 sounds issue forth which are compared to the groans of the 

 inventor and first victim of the bull of Phalaris. These sounds, 



While no way they found, 

 Nor avenue immediate through the flame, 

 Into its language turned the dismal words. 

 But soon as they had won their passage forth 

 Up from the point, which vibrating obeyed 

 Their motion at the tongue .... 



they become articulate, and in a speech of some length Count 

 Guido da Montefeltro relates the story of his misdeeds. 



Mr. D. M. S. Watson read a paper entitled, " On a Con- 

 fusion Of two species of Lepidodendron (Z. Harcourtii, 

 Witham, and L. Hickii, sp. nov.), under L. Harcourtii, 

 Witham, in Williamson's XlXth Memoir, with a 

 description of L. Hickii, sp. nov." 



