BRISTOL NATURALISTS^ SOCIETY, 
SECTIONAL MEETINGS. 

[From the Bristol Daily Post, December ISth, 1865,] 
Botanical Section, Kov. 16,— Mr, Leipner, president, 
in the chair, Mr. Yabbicom, the secretary, opened the dis- 
j ciission of the subject of Starch, illastrating his remarks 
with a number of specimens and microscopic preparations. 
Starch, which existed in some part of nearly all plants, was 
of three kinds, that known as common starch being most 
frequently met with. It might be extracted from seeds, as 
wheat, barley, rice, beans, horse chestnuts (which contained 
17.4 per cent.), and many others; from stems, as the sago 
palm; from underground stems or bulbous roots, as the 
carrot, turnip, hyacinth, and potato, where it was very 
abundant ; and from roots, as in Maranta arundinacea, the 
source of arrowroot ; the manioc, which afforded tapioca, 
celery, and others. Most of the fancy cornflowers consisted 
chiefly, if not entirely, of pure starch from maize. The two 
other 'kinds of starch were Inuline, found in the roots of 
Inula, Angelica, &c., and Lichnine, which existed, though 
not in a granular form, in many mosses and lichens. The 
grains of starch, as shown by the microscope, differed in 
size in nearly every plant, a fact which was taken advantage 
of in investigating the adulterations of commercial articles. 
The close chemical resemblance of starch to grape sugar 
was noticed, and its gradual change into the latter substance 
during germination, as in malting, Some experiments were 
shown, illustrating the manufacture of dextrin or British 
gum from starch by heating it to above 240° Fah., and also 
the blue colour produced by a solution of iodine on starch. 
Mr, H, Charbonnier exhibited starches extracted from 
maize, the acorn, and horse chestnut, the roots of Ranunculus 
bulbosus, the pulp of the apple, &c, ; and Mr. G. W. Parker, 
Jun., a number of microscopic preparations, chiefly illustrat- 
ing the adulteration of arrowroot. 
Geological Section, Nov. 23.— Mr.W, Sanders, F.G.S., 
the president of the section, described the characters of the 
several beds of the old red sandstene, and their general dis- 
tribution in the United Kingdom and over Europe, In 
Scotland the three divisions were well marked, petrologi- 
cally and palseontologically, the lowest containing a rolled 
conglomerate, proving the sea of that era to have been in 
great agitation, while the uppermost strata were deposited 
in calm water, in which flourished the Holoptychius and 
carboniferous plants. In the West of England and South 
Wales it was frequently absent from between the carboni- 
ferous and Silurian series, but between Coalbrookdale and 
Haverfordwest it attained a thickness of 10,000 feet. Here 
the upper division is conglomerate and nearly unfossilif erous, 
In some places, as at East Angle Bay in Pembrokeshire, no 
distinct boundary line could be discovered between the old 
red and Silurian series. Owing to denudation, the highest 
part of the Mendips was seldom, as in Wales, composed of 
old red sandstone. A very peculiar sandy bed, containing 
loose pebbles, was noticed as occurring at Portbury, Leigh, 
and other places near Bristol. In Devonshire the rocks were 
slaty and schistoze, and not ferruginous. In Ireland, the 
bulk of the formation was in the south, and well seen on the 
coast ; the strata were distinctly divided into two parts, as 
was also the case in Lanarkshire. Mr. Sanders concladed by 
lucidly describing the old red sandstone as found in Europe, 
North America, and the Cape of Good Hope, alluding to the 
fossils of the Eifel district, and the interest attached to the 
: beds in Russia, where they had an enormous superficial area, 
1 but very little thickness, and contained the well-known 
I fishes of Scotland and the shells of Devonshire, 
