THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



73 



CLYDESDALE NATURALISTS' SOCIETY. 

 The usual monthly meeting of this society was held on Wednesday evening, 

 16th March, in the society's rooms, 207, Bath Street — Mr. T. J. Henderson, 

 President, in the chair. The following gentleman were proposed as members : 

 Messrs. Nathaniel Dunlop, D. C. Glen, Rev. A. B. Watson, India. Mr. 

 Robert Dunlop exhibited a large specimen of cone-in-cone limestone, and 

 gave a very interesting account of the collapse sperical structure in limestone, 

 shales, and other minerals. He attributed these markings to the action of 

 gas, which forced a passage through the material when in a soft or clayed 

 form, and the passage thus left open, becoming filled with other matter, pro- 

 duced those markings we now find in limestone and other substances. This 

 theory gave rise to some little discussion among the members, which proved 

 very interesting. Mr. Dunlop also showed a slab of slate, bearing a beautiful 

 impression of a large fern (NeuropterU lochii), which he had found with other 

 five specimens at Airdrie ; this specimen, he believed, was one of the finest of 

 the kind in Britain, and he was certain that the bed from which it had taken 

 would prove one of the most productive in fossil ferns in the country. A 

 shaft was about to be driven through it, and he was looking forward to a 

 rich harvest of specimens. Geologists visiting Airdrie should not forget this 

 splendid collecting field. After some further discussion, Mr. Duncan 

 McLellan, Superintendent of Parks, read a paper on " Meteorological Notes 

 and Remarks upon the Weather during the year 1886, with its general effects 

 upon Vegetation." The paper gave a short description of the weather ex- 

 perienced during each month separately, with the average temperature, and 

 the effects upon fruit and flowers. The first four months were noted, not 

 so much for severe weather, as for an exceptionally low temperature. May 

 was not a genial month, and vegetation was in a very backward state. June 

 was the driest, while September was the wettest month of the whole year. 

 July was the only really summer month of 1886, whereas August was most 

 unpropitious to the agriculturalist. November was mild, but December was 

 so cold that the action of the frost made a rent half-an-inch wide and two 

 inches deep in a Canadian poplar, in Kelvingrove Park \ when a thaw set in 

 this split closed up. This interesting paper led to a long and most instruc- 

 tive discussion. — Johx Mackay, Hon. Sec. 



OBITUARY. 



JOHN SANG. 



It is with feelings of great regret 1 record the death of John Sang, one of 

 the oldest entomologists in the North, and one whose knowledge of British 



