REPORTS OF MEETINGS. 
167 
BOTANICAL SECTION. 
IN the investigation of a local Flora some very essential 
work has to be done in examining the gatherings of 
bygone naturahsts when their collections are available. But 
it frequently happens, unfortunately, that unless these herbaria 
become the property of a society or public institution they are 
dispersed or destroyed after the owner's death, and much useful 
information is no doubt lost in that way. For example, the 
Bristol plants collected about 1840-2 by that distinguished 
botanist, the late G. H. K. Thwaites, were sold at a Chfton 
auction some thirty years ago. Should any reader of this 
notice know where Dr. Thwaites' British plants now are, he 
would confer a favour by communicating with the writer. 
Lately, Bristol botany as been helped by Mr. Harold 
Thompson, F.L.S., into whose hands has come the herbarium 
of his great uncle, Mr. Thomas Clark, of Bridgwater, a good 
botanist, who recorded fhe flora of the Somerset peat-moors 
early in the last century. Among his plants are good speci- 
mens of some rare and interesting species, difficult to obtain 
in these days of drought and drainage, e.g. : Cicuta virosa, 
Sfarganium minimum, Rhynchosfora fusca and Carex fili- 
f or mis. Rafhanus maritimus and Eryngium campestre, too, are 
Somerset rarities, that may never be gathered again in the 
county. Besides placing these examples in my hands, Mr. 
Thompson tells me of two good plants in the district, viz. : 
Atriflex littoralis at the mouth of the Brue, and Carex 
dejpaUferata in Leigh Woods. 
JAS. W. WHITE, Hon. Sec. 
ENTOMOLOGICAL SECTION. 
DURING the year 1900 five meetings were held, papers 
and exhibitions being made as follows : — 
March 13. A large number of British Hymenoptera and 
Diptera were exhibited by Mr. Charbonnier, and Mr. Bartlett 
