46 
BOTANICAL SECTION. 
January 18th. Annual Meeting. Mr. E. Halsall, in the chair. The 
accounts for the previous year were audited and the sum of one Guinea 
voted to the Library Fund. Mr. Leipner was re-elected President, and 
Mr. Yabbicom, Honorary Secretary, with thanks for their past services. 
Mr. J. W. Clarke exhibited a collection of Mosses and Lichens, taken in 
the Bristol district. 
February 15th. Mr. S. Barton exhibited a specimen of the flower of a 
species of Banksia, from the colony of Victoria, commonly called the swamp 
honeysuckle. 
It was noticed that a Habitat for Petasites fragrans had been found in 
this district where the plant was noticed in considerable quantity, 
apparently wild. . 
March 21st. The evening was spent in the examination of a fine 
collection of British Lichens, sent for exhibition by Mr. S. Derham. 
October 17th. Mr. Dunn read a paper on Welwitschia mirabilis; Nat. 
Ord. Coniferee, which he stated was discovered by Dr. Welwitsch, in 
South-western Africa, about half way between the Equator and the Cape 
of Good Hope in 1859. It was a dwarf tree seldom rising more than a 
few inches from the ground, with a diameter of several feet, and a single 
pair of leathery leaves, usually torn to ribbons, springing from the margin 
of the trunk and remaining through the lif etime of the plant which was 
about 100 years. The fruit was a cone, growing in clusters on the edges 
of the stem. The plant was remarkable as presenting the simplest type of 
structure, with a complex, form of flowers. Living plants had not yet been 
introduced into this country, but dried specimens might be seen at Kew. 
Mr. Dunn also made a communication on Bafflesia Arnoldi, which was 
discovered by Dr. J. Arnold when accompanying Sir Stamford Baffles into 
the interior of Sumatra, in 1818. The plant was described as parasitic on 
Cissus, the whole consisting simply of a flower growing close to the ground, 
of a thick substance and very succulent. It measured a full yard across, 
the petals being twelve inches from base to apex, and th© nectarium was 
capable of holding twelve pints. The weight of the flower was calculated 
at lifteen pounds. 
Nov. 21st. B.ev. W. Hargrave exhibited an interesting collection of 
Fungi, collected in the Bristol district, and dried so as to show as much as 
possible the natural form. 
