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blemish, however, and their presence was a sign of the soil being poor, 
and the best mode of getting rid of them was to apply manure, whether 
soot, superphosphate, or in some other convenient form. 
The President, in closing the discussion, moved a vote of thanks to 
Professor Buckman for his able and interesting discourse, and for the 
obliging manner in which he had answered the various queries put to him. 
The vote was carried by acclamation. 
MEETINGS OF SECTIONS. 
BOTANICAL SECTION. 
Thursday, October 18th. — The first evening meeting of the 
Session, Mr. J. W. Clarke occupying the chair. The minutes of the 
previous meetings having been read and confirmed, 
Mr. H. Charbonnier exhibited an interesting series of Anthers and 
Pollen grains prepared for microscopic observation. The appearance and 
shape of the polien varied considerably in difi^erent plants. In those from 
the Fuschia the grains were pyramidal, and the exhibitor had partially 
succeeded in inducing the protrusion of the polien tubes by artificial 
means. Those from Althoea officinalis were spherical and covered with 
knobs, and in this particular resembled those from the Anthers of 
Onopordum acanthium. In Cichorium Intybus the grains were seen to be 
polyhedral, and in Calluna vulgaris to be generally arranged in fours. The 
smallest shown were from Tanacetum vulgare and Antirrhinum majus. In 
those from the garden Geranium were seen the parts from whence the 
pollen tubes would issue, the membrane being probably thinner at those 
points ; and those from the garden Stock and Leontodon taraxacum were 
strongly marked on the surface. The dilference in shape between grains 
taken from an endogenous plant, and those from exogenous plants, was 
shown by some from the flower of Lillium candidum, where they had only 
one longitudinal fold, whereas in Convolvulus major and Centaurea 
Scabiosa, they each had three folds. 
Mr. Groome-Napier exhibited a piece of Jappa or native cloth of the 
South Sea Islanders, manufactured from the woody fibre of some plant ; 
also, a piece of Cassava or Manioc bread, made from the root of Jatropha 
