GLASGOW SOCIETY OF FIELD NATUEALISTS. 171 



At this meeting it was resolved that the Society get up lists of 

 the Botany, and as far as possible of the Zoology of the West of 

 Scotland, in view of the approaching meeting of the British 

 Association to the city. 



SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 



By Mr, R. H. Paterson. — Several very rare Lepidoptera from 

 Australia, which had been sent by Mr. Alexander Raff, of Brisbane, 

 Queensland, among which were four specimens of Heteronympha 

 mirifica, one of the rarest insects found in Australia. There is only 

 half a specimen of this species in the British Museum. There were 

 also specimens of Fapilio Ulysses, Mynes Geoffroiji, and Delias musus. 



By Mr, Thomas King. — The beautiful fungus Peziza coccinea, from 

 Innellan. 



By Mr. James Allan. — -Claytonia virginica and Eugenia hulhosa 

 from Kentucky, sent by Mr. Williamson, a corresponding member. 



EXCUESION, 



Kenmuir and Carmyle. — Mr. Allan reported that at this excursion 

 the usual spring flowers had been found, but none of them were 

 rare enough to be worth recording. 



PAPER EEAD. 



Mr. R. H, Paterson read a paper " On the prevention of self- 

 fertilisation of plants." 



He drew attention to the fact that similar arrangements were 

 found among plants that were not otherwise closely related. Thus, 

 in the Primula vulgaris and Linum grandijlorum, we had what was 

 termed a dimorphic arrangement of the male and female organs. In 

 the natural orders, Orcliidaceae and Asclepiadaceae, we had the 

 pollen in masses, springing from a more or less viscid disc, which 

 adhered to the bodies of insects when they visited the flowers. In 

 Erica and Streptocarpus we had the pollen contained in little boxes, 

 which opened and let fall a shower of pollen when certain parts of 

 the flower were touched. In Aristolochia Braziliense, Ceropegia 

 elegans, and Arum maculatum, we had what might be called a mouse- 

 trap arrangement for the prevention of self-fertilisation. In Ceropegia 

 elegans we had the floral envelopes united to form a tube-like corolla. 

 This tube is narrow in the middle, and presents a large trumpet- 

 shaped expansion at its upper end, while below it is dilated into a 



