SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 197 



Mr. W. Bateson then gave the substance of a paper by himself and 

 Miss A. Bateson on Variations in Floral Symmetry of certain plants with 

 irregular corollas. He described the variations in number of parts and of 

 symmetry occurring in the flowers of Gladiolus, Veronica, Linaria, and 

 Streptocarpus, and showed that although in these varieties there is con- 

 siderable departure from the normal form, yet the resulting variety is 

 often as definite as the normal form and not less perfect in symmetry. It 

 was suggested that the variations by which specific forms of symmetry are 

 produced may also be thus distinct, and not of necessity involving transi- 

 tional forms, and, for example, that the process by which the 4-petalled 

 symmetry of Veronica arose from that of a 5-petalled ancestor was perhaps 

 similar in kind to that by which the 3-petalled variety of Veronica is 

 formed from the type, transitional forms being in such cases rare, or even 

 absent. An interesting discussion followed in which the President, 

 Prof. Henslow, Messrs. C. B. Clarke, and A. W. Bennett took part. 



The Secretary then read a paper by Mr. H. N. Ridley, of Singapore, 

 on two new genera of Orchids from the East Indies. 



Zoological Society of London. 



March 17, 1891.— Prof. G. B. Howes, F.Z.S., in the chair. 



Mr. Sclater exhibited and made remarks on some horns, with scalps 

 attached, of an Antelope sent to him from Somali-Land by Capt. H. G. C. 

 Swayne, R.E., which he referred to the lately described Cervicapra clarkii 

 of Mr. Oldfield Thomas. He also exhibited two skins of the Ounce, Felis 

 uncia, in reference to the specimen of this Cat lately acquired by the 

 Society, and made some remarks on the geographical range of the Ounce 

 in Central Asia. 



Mr. A. Smith Woodward gave an account of some dermal plates of 

 Bomosteus from the Old Red Sandstone of Caithness, lately sent to him by 

 Mr. Donald Calder, of Thurso, the examination of which had enabled him 

 to advance our knowledge of some points in the structure of this remarkable 

 form of extinct fishes. 



Mr. G. A. Boulenger gave a detailed description of Simony's Lizard, 

 Lacerta simonyi, from the large specimen lately living in the Society's 

 Gardens, which had been brought from the rock of Zalmo, Canaries, by 

 Canon Tristram. 



Mr. W. F. Kirby gave an account of a small collection of Dragonflies 

 made by Mr. E. E. Green in Ceylon. The series contained examples of 

 sixteen species, of which three appeared to be new to science. 



Mr. Oldfield Thomas read some notes on the specimens of Antelopes 

 procured by Mr.T. W. H. Clarke in Somali-Land, which had been submitted 



