viii Proceedings. {January 2ph, i8gg. 



Ordinary Meeting, January 24th, 1899. 



James Cosmo Melvill, M.A., F.L.S., President, in the Chair. 



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

 books upon the table. 



The President announced that the Council had awarded 

 the Wilde Medal of the Society for 1899 to Sir Edward 

 Frankland, K.C.B., F.R.S., and the Wilde Premium to Charles 

 H. Lees, D.Sc. ; that Professor William Ramsay, F.R.S., had 

 been appointed to deliver the Wilde Lecture, and that the date 

 of presentation of the Wilde Medal and of the delivery of the 

 Wilde Lecture had been fixed for Tuesday, the 28th of February. 



Dr. F. H. Bowman mentioned that he had recently seen a 

 specimen of wheat, grown in South Africa, consisting of about 

 420 stalks, apparently produced from one seed, each stalk having 

 an ear containing on the average 40 grains of wheat. The 

 President and Mr. C. Bailey agreed that the plant was most 

 probably Triticmn compositum. Mr. Tristram stated that plants 

 consisting of 190 stalks had been grown in Lancashire. 



Mr. C. E. Strom ever exhibited a number of photographs 

 illustrating the extent and character of the damage effected by 

 the recent boiler explosion at Monton. 



The President exhibited a specimen of Eichhornia speciosa 

 Kunth., and remarked that it cannot be too widely circulated 

 that very great danger attends the cultivation of this showy plant 

 or its introduction into tropical or subtropical countries, where 

 it might be thought to add to the beauties of lakes or ponds in 

 Botanical Gardens and elsewhere. 



Originally a native of South America, it was about nine 

 years since introduced into Florida, in an ornamental sheet of 

 water not far from St. John's River. It was soon found to have 

 filled up this space, and a stray offshoot having accidentally 

 found its way to the river, the growth was so rapid and so 

 effectual as to convert portions of it into the semblance of green 



