144 



The Na^turalist. 



372nd Meeting, March 16th, Mr. B. Holgate, president, in 

 the chair. — Mr. W. E. Clarke exhibited a male and female 

 shore lark {Aland a alpestris), shot at Spurn Head on the 13th of 

 March. A large flock had frequented that part of the coast since last 

 December, being especially partial to a large bed of wrack, or sea-weed. 

 This bird had not occurred in any numbers on the Yorkshire coast for 

 fifteen years. Mr. Walter Raine exhibited some skins of foreign birds, 

 including a pair of Indian partridges, the night heron, the paradise fly- 

 catcher, and belted kingfisher ; Mr. Henry Lupton, a variety of Cymato- 

 pJiora Jlavicorfds, in which the orbicular s]3ot is yellow — an unusual 

 circumstance ; also a number of females of Hyhernia progemmaria. All 

 these insects he had lately captured within the borough of Leeds, at 

 Hawksworth Wood. Mr. F. Emsley brought for exhibition the stomata 

 and raphides of Byacinthus nutans, the blue-bell. — W. D. R. 



Manchester Cryptogamic Society. — Monthly meeting, 15th March. 

 — Mr. Whitehead, the president of the Society, read a paper on the 

 Inflorescence of Mosses, in which he showed the importance of these 

 organs in the determination of species. In the works of Linnaeus 

 the fruits of mosses were erroneously described as anthers. The great 

 German botanist, Hedwig, in his Muscorum frondosorum, demonstrated 

 that other minute organs which he had discovered were really the true 

 flowers of mosses. This was disputed on the high authority of Necker. 

 The value of the organs pointed out by Hedwig was not fully appreciated 

 until the studies of Bruch and Schimper were published in the grand 

 Bryologia Europea. Mr. Whitehead pointed out the difierent modes of 

 flowering, and showed that in a great measure the flowers of mosses 

 were analagous to the flowers of flowering plants proper. After giving 

 some practical hints of how and where to look for flowers, the members 

 were invited to the inspection of a splendid microscopic mount of the 

 flowers of Cindidium stygium, from Malham Tarn, prepared by Mr. 

 Whitelegg. The honorary secretary (Mr. Rogers) afterwards read a 

 translation, by Dr. Wood, from the Bryologia Europea on the Inflorescence 

 of the genus Fontinalis. Many rare local mosses were exhibited by 

 Messrs. Cunlifie, Holt, and Wild. Mr. Thomas Brittain also exhibited 

 several species of microscopic fungi, specimens of which he kindly 

 distributed. The honorary secretary announced that he had received a 

 magnificent collection of European mosses, which had been presented to 

 the society through Dr. Wood, by Professor Schimper, of Strasburg. 



Wakefield Field Naturalists' Society. — Monthly meeting, March 

 3rd, Mr. Wrigglesworth, v. p., in the chair. — Mr. E. E. Talbot showed 

 a variety of P. pilosaria taken February 28th ; Mr. Wrigglesworth, 

 CEdemera cceridea, Linn., taken at Wetherby, by Mr. Roebuck ; also 

 PhlcBophragus spadix, Hbst, taken on the beach at Harwich, by Mr. J. J. 

 Walton, R.N. 



