150 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Meeting of the Society would fall this year on Whit-Monday. The President, 

 in reply, remarked that the matter had not escaped the attention of the 

 Officers, and stated what was proposed to be done. 



Mr. Clement Eeid exhibited fruits of Naias marina from a peaty deposit 

 below mean-tide level in the new Docks at Barry, S. Wales. In Britain it 

 had only been found living at a single locality in Norfolk, but in a fossil 

 condition it had been obtained in the pre-glacial forest-bed at Cromer. 

 A discussion followed in which Messrs. A. B. Rendle, H. Groves, and A. W. 

 Bennett took part, and it was suggested that the living plant might be 

 looked for in South Wales, where, being inconspicuous, it might have been 

 hitherto overlooked. 



Mr. Clement Reid also exhibited some wood forwarded by Mr. H. N. 

 Ridley from the jungle near Singapore. It appeared to have been eaten 

 into a honeycombed mass of peculiar character, and was found only in wet 

 places, but always above ground, the entire tree rotting. Neither Mr. Ridley 

 nor Mr. Reid had seen anything like it in England; and the latter, while 

 suggesting that the small lenticular unconnected cavities in the wood were 

 probably caused by insects or their larvae, thought they were unlike the 

 work of either Beetles or White Ants. Some critical remarks were offered 

 by Dr. Havilaud. 



A paper was read by Dr. Otto Stapf " On the Structure of the Female 

 Flowers and Fruit of Sararanga, Hemsley." The materials utilized con- 

 sisted of female flowers and fruits of Sararanga sinuosa, Hemsley (Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. vol. xxx. p. 216, t. 11), which had been collected by the officers 

 of H.M.S. 'Penang' in New Georgia, Solomon Islands, and were in excellent 

 preservation. There were also photographs and a description, taken upon 

 the spot, of the tree, about 60 ft. high, shortly branched at the top, with 

 terminal, nodding, white-flowered, very compound, and gigantic panicles, 

 the leaves being like those of an ordinary screw-pine. On this paper some 

 critical remarks were offered by Mr. Rendle. 



On behalf of Mr. G. S. West, a paper was read by Prof. Howes on two 

 little-known Opisthoglyphous Snakes. The author had examined and com- 

 pared, in respect of the structure of the buccal glands and teeth, specimens 

 of the grooved and the non-grooved varieties of Erythrolamprus ceseulajrii, 

 as recorded by Dr. Giinther (Biologia Centr.-x\mer. part cxxi. p. 166), and 

 he proved that the latter were rightly referred to the species. 



April 2nd. — Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair. 



Mr. J. W. Cornwall was elected a Fellow of the Society. 



On behalf of Dr. F. Arnold, of Munich, the Secretary exhibited several 

 photographs of typical Lichens, received in continuation of a series which 

 has been for some time past in course of issue by that well-known 

 lichenologist. 



