196 TEANSACTIONS OF THE 



waiting patiently for the fermentive process to hatch them. The 

 mound is scraped up by the male bird to a height of five or six feet ; 

 and the eggs are placed among the heated mass in a ring at regular 

 intervals, with their smaller ends pointing downwards, at least 

 eighteen inches below the surface. Lest the temperature of the 

 mass become too great, the male bird is constantly giving them air 

 during the day, and keeping an aperture open in the middle to 

 prevent any increase of heat. The eggs of the brush turkey cannot 

 be hatched by the warmth of other birds, neither can they be 

 hatched by the artificial method which is so successful with nearly 

 all other birds. These facts go to prove that there is some condition 

 of heat which the fermentive process is alone capable of producing. 



Mr. J. Harvie mentioned that the Leipoa and the Megapode 

 (Megapodius tumulus), also natives of Australia, deposit their eggs in 

 similar mounds ; but instead of placing them at intervals in the 

 mound, they make deep holes, from five to six feet, at the bottom of 

 which the eggs are deposited. The mounds are enormously large, 

 the height of one being fifteen feet, and its circumference at the base 

 about sixty feet. 



PAPER EEAD. 

 Mr. Thos. King then read a paper on " Early botanists before the 

 time of Reay." The first whose name is known in the history of 

 botany is Hippocrates, who described two hundred and forty plants. 

 Then came Theophrastes and Dioscorides, who described six hundred 

 plants. These three men are the authorities for all the Greek names 

 up to the Christian era, {e.g.), Anchusa, Orchis, and Aconitum. The 

 first century of the Christian era is especially memorable, for it was 

 then that the great Pliny arose. Galen was the only botanist of note 

 in the second century. His teaching ruled for one thousand years. 

 After Galen's time there was no one of note till the beginning of the 

 eighth century, when arose the celebrated Arab Physicians, so called, 

 not because they were all Arabians, but because they wrote in the 

 Arabian language. After this there is a total blank in the history of 

 botany, but after the invention of printing and the subsequent 

 discovery of America, it revived. The first to come into note was 

 Brunsfels, who wrote a book on botany with plates. Next comes 

 Brock, who wrote a history of plants. Then came such illustrious 

 men as Cordus, Fuchs, Gesner, Mathiola, Lonicer, and Lobel, 

 whose names appear in the names of our common plants — 



