PKOCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 95 



and injection in leaves.' — M. Woronin, 'Additional notes on Plas- 

 modiophora Brassica.' — F. Hegelniaier, ' On the enibryogeny and 

 development of the endosperm in Lupinus ' (tt. 2). — K. Sadebeck, 

 • Critical aphorisms on the life-history of Cryptogams.' 



Flora,— A. Zimmermann, ' On transfusion-tissue' (t. 1). — W. 

 Nylander, ' Addenda nova ad Lichenogiaphiam Europfeam.' 



_ Naturalist.— J. Fergusson, ' New British Mosses ' (Coscinodon 

 cribrosus, Hedw. ; Bryum rufum, n. sp. or var.) 



Proottrtup of Sotittm. 



Linnean Society of London. 



January 15, 1880.— Prof. Allman, F.B.S., President, in the 



chair.— Messrs. J. Poland (of Blackheath), J. Darell Stephens (of 



Plymouth), and Prof. Allan Thomson were elected Fellows, and T. 



J. Parker an Associate of the Society. — Mr. J. G. Baker called 



attention to an instance of a monstrous form of Carduns crispus 



sent by the Eev. T. A. Preston from Wiltshire, in which the 



capitula were abnormally numerous and aggregated in secondary 



heads, as in Echinops. — Mr. J. G. Baker read a paper entitled 



M Synopsis of the Aloinea and Yuccoidea" To these two tribes 



belong all the shrubby and arborescent types of the capsular 



Liliacem, The Aloes are marked by their gamophyllous perianth 



and fleshy leaves, and belong entirely to the Old World, 170 out of 



the total number of 200 species now known being concentrated at 



the Cape of Good Hope, and the remainder mostly scattered through 



the highlands of Tropical Africa. There are four genera, Aloe, 



(jasteria, Haworthia, and Apicra, and they vary in habit from 



plants half a foot high when in flower with sessile rosettes of a few 



fleshy leaves to copiously-branched trees fifty or sixty feet in 



height. Nearly all the known Cape species are in cultivation in 



English gardens at the present time. The best known officinal 



species, Aloe succotnna, which has been attributed to the island of 



Socotra, has been found lately in a wild state at the Cape of Good 



Hope. To the Yuccoidea, in addition to the type-genus, belong 



Hesperaloe, Dasylirion, Beaucarnea, and Herreria. There are about 



fifty species known, all but the last being concentrated in Mexico 



and the Southern United States. The Yuccas fruit but rarely 



under cultivation, the large w T hite pendulous flowers being fertilised 

 m the wild plant by a moth of the genus Pronuba. Some of them, 

 as, for instance, Y. baccata and brer i folia, reach the dimensions of 

 large trees. F. baccata has a fleshy edible fruit resembling that of 

 the Banana in shape and size. Dasylirion and Beaucarnea resemble 

 1 ucca in habit, but have very abundant small polygamo-dioicous 

 flowers, and the latter recedes from the Liliaceous type by its one- 

 celled, one- seeded indehiscent capsule. Herreria, which belongs to 

 lemperate South America, is a shrubby climber with the habit of 

 bmilax and Dioscorea. 





