90 
com, Ross Villa, Cotham road, who hospitably entertained the members 
with tea, in accordance with a precedent established at the February meet- 
ing of the Section, at Mr. Leipner's house. 
The President said that although this was the fourth session, the sec- 
tion could not boast of much work accomplished during the past year ; 
many specimens still remained at the Institution unprepared for the her- 
barium — he might mention, as an example, the collection of u osses pre- 
sented to the Society by Mr. W. Tanner- But little progress had been 
made in working the district, not 2 sq. miles out of the whole 180 having 
been properly worked out. The appearance of the Society's 'publication 
was delayed by the illness of Mr. "W. Sanders, who was to write the first 
part, which would be chiefly geological, and as soon as that had appeared, 
the botanical work would be immediately wanted. 
Mr. T. H. Yabbicom, the sectional secretary, then made a few remarks 
upon a series of specimens of marine Algae, which he had prepared during 
a ten days' sojourn, during the summer of this year, at Paignton, near 
Torbay, Devon. They had all been collected between the tide-marks at 
high and low spring tides, and were beautifully mounted on ordinary draw- 
ing paper cut to a uniform size ; they were first thoroughly washed in fresh 
water, then floated on to the paper in a shallow dish of water, and finally 
dried by pressure between folds of linen and blotting paper. Mr. Yabbi- 
com stated that his specimens were thus distributed among the three great 
orders into which the Algse were divided, — ■ 
Genera 
Species 
Melanosperms 
io />; 
14 
Chlorosperms 
4 
10 
Rhodosperms 
15 
25 
29 
49 
He briefly alluded to the distinctive characters of each, and demonstrated 
their specific differences by a series of microscopic preparations of the sea- 
weeds, mounted in gelatin, a medium which appeared to answer exceed- 
ingly well for this class of objects. He did not exhibit these as a complete 
set, but to show how much might be done in a short period by a little 
steady work. 
GEOLOGICAL SECTION. 
Thursday, October 24th. — Major Thos. Austin, F.G.S., in 
the chair. 
